Can someone tell me why?!!

[urluckyday]

Quick question. Can someone tell me why they cancelled the game Sam and Max Freelance Police a while back? It looked amazing so why?!!

[Metallus]

But then you posted the question in the wrong forum (it does matter, if only a litle bit). As for the 'why', Lucasarts didn't think they could sell an adventure game. Weird that they got so far into development before they realized this. Anyway, that's why they won't make anymore.

 

Edit: moved.

[Jake]

I think partly due to a management change, they suddenly realized that they were millions of dollars into funding a graphic adventure genre - a genre which is allegedly "dead" and "unsellable." Ignoring the fact (or disregarding its importance) that there are thousands of people with fond memories of the characters, and that Sam & Max themselves are a genre-defying set of characters if there ever was one.

 

Needless to say, they decided that it would be a smaller loss to cancel the game when they did rather than invest hundreds of thousands in marketing and getting the game in stores only to have it flop. It was a decision made out of fear, but on the other hand, in a big corporation it's probably the job of the people with the money to fear everything.

 

I think most of us disagree with their assessment of the situation, but in reality, will any of us really know for sure?

[Udvarnoky]

Not until someone "on the inside" decides to explain what actually happened, anyway (which is something I'm secretly hoping will happen). I really would like to hear the story eventually, get all the details. I mean from someone who can do more than just speculate.

 

And while I'm ranting about this all over again:

 

Seriously, disregarding all feelings of betrayal and hating LEC and all that, did anyone else find it really annoying that LucasArts' official response was to release a stupid and short press statement, delete it shortly after, and never mention it again? I mean what's up with that. I know Star Wars is obviously more important to them, but there was a clear, huge difference in the levels of enthusiasm from the company itself when you compare Sam & Max announcements to Star Wars ones. It's like they really didn't care about anyone finding out anything about the game, making it a point to issue huge, elaborate Star Wars press releases whenever someone on the team's foot fell asleep, and when our game is axed we get...that?

 

Look at the pitiful amounts of information released about the game. There was no campaign from the beginning. It's like there was complete apathy from the company, and I'm talking about pre-Simon Jeffrey resignation as well. And while admittedly the game was probably to be delayed to around the fall of the year and April was likely to have been a somewhat significant increase in media-issuing (as evident by the April magazine previews and the surfacing of new screenshots), I think there was a definite and highly noticable lack of attention paid to making this game aware to anybody. I can't remember how many times I'd seen, late in the game, Sam & Max fans pleasantly surprised to hear that the game was being made. Putting aside loyalty to S&M and love of adventure games and originality and everything, am I the only one who stared at those same two screenshots, the E3 trailer, and the generic press release for a year and a half and thought it was weird? I'm not talking about the kind of advertising that costs money, either. I'm talking about their not going out of their way to keep a lid tight on the title.

[SyntheticGerbil]

I think they didn't sell it because cartoon animals are faggy and out of style.

 

It's the furrie influx. No Joke.

[sheaday6]

kids today are more into porn