Beta + Cancelled Activision Video Games - Page 3 of 5

DJ Hero: After Party is a cancelled spin-off to the original DJ Hero game, which was briefly being worked on by Zoë Mode, the UK based subsidiary of Kuju Entertainment, for Activision in 2009. It was proposed as a game for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.

Another Spin On DJ Hero

As FreeStyleGames was in the final stages of developing the first DJ Hero, Zoë Mode set a team of artists on formulating ideas for a spin-off game to it in July 2009. The developer had, in the recent past, created other such music games as Rock Revolution and Disney: Sing It! when the project began.

Leading Light, the design studio of Christian Bravery, was contracted to help make concept art for the company, as the vision behind game was steadily being realised. Together, they imagined an alternative approach to the formula of DJ Hero, one developer explained.

“It would have had a very different vibe to it than the other games. We wanted it to have its own personality and feel. More relaxed and laid back.”

DJ: After Party would have made for a more casual-friendly approach to the series. Another developer described the possibility of it being made up of “slower, more up beat” tracks, although work on the title never got as far as assembling a set list.

The general idea behind it was that most of the show venues, as you might imagine, were after parties. Leading Light and the developers put together images of some of the events, which included celebrity wedding receptions, boat parties and a private luxury island.

Activision allowed the developer to use the DJ Hero license in developing conceptual documents and a prototype demo for their potential spin-off, as well as the opportunity to present a proposal to their management. Zoë Mode ended up working on the concept for a few months before Activision ultimately decided against pursuing the project, rejecting the pitch in October 2009; the month of DJ Hero’s first release.

According to one artist, the concepts were, however, retained by Activision and some of their ideas were later used in DJ Hero 2.

Character art:

More concepts including pitch documents/research:

Nintendo, Nintendo 3DS, Wii

Family Guy: Back To The Multiverse [Cancelled – 3DS / Wii]

Liam Robertson

10-11-2014

2 Comments

Family Guy: Back To The Multiverse is an action adventure title, which was developed by Heavy Iron Studios. It was released in November 2012 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. However, over a year before its release, the company was also working on 3DS and Wii versions of the title.

In May 2011, Activision put Heavy Iron in charge of creating a new game, based on the hit TV series, Family Guy. Given the difference in power between the HD platforms and Nintendo’s 3DS and Wii systems, the developer was initially ordered to make two separate versions of the game. While the 360/PS3/PC game was a third person adventure game with shooter elements, the other took on an isometric perspective; not wholely dissimilar to Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff on iOS.

The Wii version of the game was being designed around the Wii remote and nunchuck, although did not make use of any of its unique features, such as the motion sensors or pointer. It was planned to be almost entirely identical to the 3DS version in terms of gameplay.

Whereas the shooting mechanics in the released HD title used a manually controlled reticule, the 3DS and Wii game used what one developer described to us as an “auto targeting system” instead, given the isometric camera view. This automatically locked on to potential targets within the immediate area to fire at with Stewie’s laser gun or Brian’s pistol.

According to one of the programmers on the Multiverse project we spoke to, the 3DS and Wii version were outlined to be otherwise “completely undifferentiated” in terms of story; even featuring the same dialogue and voice acting clips. It would have also included the two main playable characters of Brian and Stewie Griffin from the other version.

Playable prototype builds were created but shortly afterwards, the 3DS and Wii games were cancelled in August 2011, another developer told us.

“We stopped working on them around August. They weren’t that far along but both were up and running just fine. Everyone working on it was transitioned into working on the other version of it after that”

The same former Heavy Iron employee gave us two reasons for the projects’ demise.

“The Wii version was dropped first and then the 3DS one quickly after. I think it was a combination of them wanting us to focus on making one version of the game and growing concerns about how it would perform on those platforms”

Neither of the games ever received an official announcement prior to cancellation.

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure [Beta – SNES)

U64 Staff & Contributors

27-05-2013

5 Comments

As we can read on Wikipedia, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is a 1994 videogame developed and published by Activision in partnership with Redline Games. It was first released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis) and Mega-CD (Sega CD) in 1994, followed by releases for the Sega 32X, Atari Jaguar, and PC the following year. Hallfiry on Betaarchive forums found some images from a beta version, if you want to write a list of all the differences, leave a message below! :D

Thanks to Stephen Reed for the contribution

Microsoft, Nintendo, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

Spyro’s Kingdom [Cancelled – PS3 / Xbox 360 / Wii]

Gh0stBlade

25-06-2012

2 Comments

Spyro’s Kingdom is a cancelled game in the Spyro Series, which was developed, then scrapped, then redeveloped, then scrapped, but became Skylanders. Version 1 was developed by Helios Interactive and was to be exclusive to PC and Nintendo Wii. This version got cancelled, however, it was revived later by Toys 4 Bob with version 2, which introduced the portal of power and skylander figures, then called “Kingdom Heros”. Later it was redone again and finally released as Skylanders.

VERSION 1- Helios Version
The game was presented to Activision, complete with working demo and production art. However, Activision decided against this game, and instead went on to create Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, the third reboot in the Spyro franchise. It is unknown if the game was cancelled before or after the cancellation of the Spyro movie, which was also set in the ‘Legend’ reboot.

Something interesting to note is that the flying mechanic is very similar to that used in Skylanders – It is unknown if this was on purpose or not.

Post by RadSpyro

Videos:

Version 2 -Toys 4 Bob Version
This version is highly similar to Skylanders, even including portals and figures, however, this version did not require the figures or portal to play, and it had online play. Activision liked the concept and decided to go with it, later they had Toys 4 Bob remove the online play and make the figures and portal required. The version 2 was going to be Nintendo Wii Exclusive. However when word of this got out to fans, there was backlash and the fans on several forums expressed hate and did death threats. Later they announced it would also launch on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 as well.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121019073502/spyro/images/7/7b/Spyro%27s_KingdomLogo.jpg

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121019062627/spyro/images/thumb/d/df/Spyro%27s_Kingdom1.jpg/185px-Spyro%27s_Kingdom1.jpg

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/spyro/images/thumb/6/64/Selecing_Spyro_on_Spyro%27s_Kingdom.jpg/185px-Selecing_Spyro_on_Spyro%27s_Kingdom.jpg

more information: http://spyro.wikia.com/wiki/Spyro’s_Kingdom

Microsoft, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

True Crime: Hong Kong (Sleeping Dogs) [Beta – Xbox 360 PS3]

monokoma

14-02-2012

No Comments

True Crime: Hong Kong is a sandbox action game that was in development by United Front Games and was to be published by Activision. It was going to be the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series, but in February 2011, Activision announced that the game had ceased production along with their Guitar Hero franchise. The game was declared cancelled for being “just not good enough” to compete in the open world genre. Activision didn’t expect it to generate enough profit and stopped development. “True Crime: Hong Kong was playable from start to finish and ‘virtually complete’ in terms of content before Activision canned it,” the developer behind the game told CVG. [Info from Wikipedia] In February 2012, it was announced that True Crime: Hong Kong will go trough some changes and it will be released by Square Enix as a different game, named “Sleeping Dogs”.

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