PS Vita

Warrior’s Lair (Ruin) [PS3, PSVita – Cancelled]

Warrior’s Lair (working title ‘’Ruin’’)  was an action role-playing game set in a medieval fantasy universe. Developed by Idol Minds (now known as Deck Nine), Ruin was supposed to feature gameplay similar to Diablo and Torchlight, which were pretty big in the early 2010s. 

The game was to be released on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita and sold as a single package, as then-confirmed by Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony Worldwide Studios, in a statement for Eurogamer

‘’Both games will be packaged together. You can play the game at home on PS3, save your data on our PSN server on the cloud, and you can continue playing the game on PS Vita by downloading the save from the PSN. And you can do vice versa. It’s a continuous experience, playing the same game on PS Vita and PS3.’’

The game was presented in June 2011 at E3. The seamless gameplay and cross-connectivity were arguably the biggest selling points of the game. Its isometric view and dungeon-crawling elements were reminiscent of games such as Diablo, confirming their main inspiration for the project. Ruin was also supposed to contain simulation of destructible environments and ragdoll physics. 

During the same E3 conference, Sony Entertainment demonstrated the ability to transfer active games between the two systems using cloud storage. Warrior’s Lair/Ruin was supposed to feature social media integration, allowing players to post their progress on Facebook and Twitter. Players could show up in each other’s games and either collaborate or compete. 

After 2 years of sitting in limbo, the game was officially canceled in July 2013, as stated by a Sony representative to IGN:

‘’Sony Computer Entertainment can confirm that Warrior’s Lair for PS Vita is no longer in development’’; We apologize to those who pre-ordered the title and ask that they contact their retailer directly to cancel their pre-sale.’’

We don’t exactly know why the game was canceled. All that we know is that Sony Entertainment San Diego was supposed to add the finishing touches back in 2012, and when the game didn’t show up at E3 2012, the future of the game was put into question. 

As we can read at PushSquare:

“Apparently, when the title was canned, Idol Minds had been working on the project for a full year. The game was supposedly just three months away from release, with Sony having already invested “millions of dollars” into it. But the plug was pulled nevertheless, even if the reasons behind its cancellation weren’t even clear to those that worked on it.

“First, I assume it had to do with the weakness of the Vita,” Floyd explained. “Sony internal studios, to me, looked like they never had much faith in it. As far as we were concerned, the game was primarily a PS3 game; we weren’t going to bank on the Vita.” Regardless, the title apparently looked and played great on the troubled handheld, with the cross-save feature working like a charm.”

Unfortunately, the chances of Warrior’s Lair eventually seeing the light of day are slim. After Reddit user u/nduval emailed the developers asking about the future of the title, they said:

It’s great to hear from you. Ruin was a passion project for the entire team and we were heartbroken when Sony ran out of funding to finish it.

Things are different over there now, with the success of the PS4, so building fan interest in the game and communicating that to Sony would be the only way forward.

We would love to return to that game and finish it.

Article by Marco Giuliani

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Terrorforge [Cancelled/Concept – PS Vita]

Terrorforge was a cancelled RTS game that was briefly being worked on at Cohort Studios in Dundee, Scotland during 2010. It was a concept developed in under a month for publisher, Sony Computer Entertainment. Had full development on the game been green-lit, it would have been a Playstation Vita exclusive title with a release targeted around the system’s launch in late 2011/early 2012.

The game was one of many concepts worked on by Cohort during their partnership with SCEE, which was originally struck when they collaborated to produce the Buzz! Junior series. According to our sources, it was a small secondary project pitched during production on The Shoot for PS3.

It was imagined as a strategy-action experience with similarities to a god game, in which the player assumes the role of mother nature to assist humanity in defending Earth from a highly advanced race of alien invaders. At your disposal would have been the ability to manipulate terrain, as well as the power to summon earthquakes, spontaneous volcanism, and other forces of nature like tornadoes.

It was planned to be controlled primarily using the Vita’s touch screen and pad. Although the Vita, which was then codenamed “NGP” (Next Generation Portable), had not been formally announced by Sony, Cohort’s staff were already privy to its existence and some of its features as a trusted partner. They joined a number of developers around the world introduced to the new system early to begin proposing games for it. Terrorforge never entered production, or even the prototyping phase, before being turned down by Sony’s management for publishing.