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Ignition’s cancelled Reich project has leaked to the public via a chain of videos, each showing the potential of the expensive FPS project.
The recent collapse of Ignition’s Florida studio, which left some 70 developers without a job, put the Reich project to a premature end.
The fall of the studio has led to an emotional outpouring on the Develop story’s comments section; where a management executive has been repeatedly named as a destructive element. Those claims remain unsubstantiated.
Now another anonymous source has taken to the comments section to post videos of the Reich project; a cancelled FPS rumoured to have cost as much as $20 million.
The videos flaunt the project’s realtime physics system, as well as BioShock-esque telekinetic gameplay.
Video 1:
One source said that “of the 9 Reich levels, only levels 1 and 2 are completed. It would be difficult to outsource the rest of the game since the other stages are partially completed. Past management staff has mismanaged the funds. There was no corporate monitoring on spending.”
Video 2:
Posting on the video’s comments section a former game director at Ignition – Jeremy Stieglitz – recalls the more prosperous times at the studio.
“I remember when I sent this video to Ajay [Chanda, founding director]. He said we should loop it on a plasma in the LucasArts parking lot to show ’em how our game had real physics destruction, unlike Force Unleashed 🙂 Good times.”
Video 3, trailer:
Meanwhile, Matthew Farber, a former senior programmer at Ignition declared “Force Unleashed had nothing on Reich. I worked on this very version of the game. Everything you see is completely dynamic. I may not have stayed [on the project] until the end, but I always hoped the game would make it to the end and eventually be released. My only regret is that it didn’t.”
Farber left the company in April 2009.
The demise of Reich followed shortly after Ignition’s UK studio had to axe the WarDevil project – another multi-year project that became a white elephant for the company.
Major changes underway at Ignition is, the group recently said, part of its new plan to reform as a digitally-focused game development outfit.
Announcements will be made soon of a revived company with a new focus.
The firm recently told Develop its London development studio, despite around thirty staff going, arm will fight on.
“Ignition’s London office is very much up and running and will serve as the global headquarters for the company’s recently announced investment into digital distribution and publishing,” read a statement.
Develop has heard that the group’s CEO, Vijay Chadha, has been absent for around three months with many staff, possibly all of them, unaware of his whereabouts.
Ignition was acquired by India media giant UTV in 2007.
