Tue, Aug 02, 2011 | 09:13 BST

Square Enix buys rights to True Crime: Hong Kong

Square Enix has said it has bought the rights to True Crime: Hong Kong from Activision.

Square Enix London studio Lee Singleton made the admission in an interview with Gamasutra. However, the publisher has not picked up the rights to the IP, and that the title will be rebranded to reflect otherwise.

“It’s too early to say what the name will be,” said Singleton, adding that removing the True Crime name would be “pretty straightforward.”

United Front Games are still working on the title, as it was when Activision was publishing the game before its cancelation. Singleton wouldn’t be drawn on release timings or formats, though. It was originally due to release this year for PS3, 360 and PC.

He admitted that it was a “done deal” between Square and United Front after it had seen the potential with the game from the developer.

“When we met the team at United Front Games, it was a done deal in our eyes — we instantly recognized the huge potential in the game and the team. UFG is an incredibly talented team, who have individually worked on some of the biggest games in our industry, and this talent shines through from the moment you walk in the door.”

True Crime: Hong Kong was announced back in December 2008 at the Spike Video Game Awards, and was shown various times to media, but was canned by Activision in February because it would not “be at the top” of the open-world genre, according to comments made by Activision COO Eric Hirshberg in June.

27 comment-trail-alt Posted in: Action, Activision Blizzard, Square Enix
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27 comments

#1

Erthazus
01/08/11, 8:25 pm

fucking yes.

Activision sucks cock as always.
Thats really great for gamers. Square Enix you are good in my eyes right now. Good job.

#2

Maximum Payne
01/08/11, 8:32 pm

I am curious for what money they bought it.

#3

AHA-Lambda
01/08/11, 8:43 pm

oh that was surprising, good to hear :)

#4

YoungZer0
01/08/11, 8:43 pm

Fuck yeah! Go fuck yourself Activision! I knew i was right about the potential of this game. Hope to hear more soon.

#5

Suikoden Fan
01/08/11, 8:47 pm

as long as this doesnt turn into another brutal legend fiasco, alls good

#6

Razor
01/08/11, 8:47 pm

Game will suck. We all know it.

#7

Noodlemanny
01/08/11, 8:51 pm

@6 yep thats what it looked liked before it was cancelled.
Thats probably why it was cancelled.

#8

Gekidami
01/08/11, 8:53 pm

It really didnt look very good going off what was shown before it got canned. It’ll be interesting to see how much gets changed under Square though.

#9

Maximum Payne
01/08/11, 9:02 pm

@8 There was one chase scene they show after cancel the game it was here on VG247 and looked cool.

#10

ASBI
01/08/11, 9:04 pm

thats good , lets hope they make something good out of it

#11

Moonwalker1982
01/08/11, 9:09 pm

I find it rather funny how people were calling this game crap and what not when it was still at Activision’s, it gets canned and i see alotta people go ‘noooooo…this would have been so awesome’ seriously..what the hell.

#12

DSB
01/08/11, 9:11 pm

@8 Yup, but if people are willing to buy the game based on a bit of unconvincing footage, it’s probably worth buying, and they probably got it cheap :P

#13

Maximum Payne
01/08/11, 9:16 pm

@11 Because its relatively new IP which look relatively good and when you see stupid games like spider man shattered dimensions going to have sequel its just….stupid.

#14

orakaa
01/08/11, 9:53 pm

YEAHHH !!!

#15

BULArmy
01/08/11, 9:59 pm

Evry one of the True Crime games don’t look very unconvinving, but I really like the other two games and was really looking forward for the game and was disappointed when it was cancalled. Now again I am happy :D

#16

NeoSquall
01/08/11, 10:09 pm

fucking good news!

#17

SplatteredHouse
01/08/11, 10:19 pm

Great outcome for United Front, and excellent news for us too! In the full Gama article, the Square Enix rep is positively beaming over the deal, game and the people working on it. :)

Hopefully, next, some enterprising publisher will dissuade Acti from sitting on the chance of a Blur sequel.

#18

NeoSquall
01/08/11, 10:25 pm

I hope this sells well, so UFG can bitch slap Activision and its cheap brands.

#19

The_Red
01/08/11, 10:28 pm

@18
Word!

Great news for devs of this game.

#20

Lewis247
01/08/11, 10:53 pm

Sweet! I was actually looking forward to this as well.

Activision must of been like “THIS WONT SELL AS WELL AS CALL OF HURR DURR LETS SCRAP A QUALITY, MANY YEAR AFTER THE ORIGINALS SEQUEL AND INSTEAD KEEP GOING WITH A COPY AND PASTE YEARLY RELEASE OF CALL OF DUTY HURRRR”

#21

Moonwalker1982
01/08/11, 11:00 pm

If the game is really good and worth it, i hope it sells well as well.

#22

Moonwalker1982
01/08/11, 11:10 pm

I must retract my previous comment, i just watched this video and this looks pretty cool. I like the chasing part, we don’t have many of these games left and its good to have them among another ‘insert first person shooter game’ .

#23

Dralen
02/08/11, 2:23 am

Nice!

I seriously hate Activision’s ideals about games right now. I’m pretty sure they have the mind set that if they don’t think the game will sell millions upon millions of copies, it’s not worth publishing.

#24

hypeb147
02/08/11, 5:30 am

Tighten up the controls, make the transition animations smoother, get good voice acting, and a Q1/Q2 2012 release date and voila!!

#25

Christopher Jack
02/08/11, 7:25 am

I really hope that it’s good enough to find critical success, that will show ActiVision :D

#26

Blerk
02/08/11, 8:55 am

An excellent result for United Front, for sure. Good luck to ‘em.

And yes, it would be most amusing if this turned out to be highly-rated, top-selling game. :-)

#27

HuntingJake
02/08/11, 9:52 am

Just Cause: Hong Kong. Make it happen, Square.

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