Syndicate reboot a "lost battle from the get go"

Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark is proud of his team for tackling Syndicate despite the shooter's underwhelming retail performance and critical mauling.

"I'm still proud of it. To have the courage to reboot the franchise - We knew from the get-go that there was going to be a small but very vocal [group] of gamers and journalists that was going to hate us whatever route we took," the executive told EDGE.

"If we didn't do an exact copy of the game, they'd hate us. If we did do an exact copy, they'd say we didn't innovate. They were never ours to win; it was a lost battle from the get-go."

The developer said Syndicate cost "substantially less" to produce than it would have at a larger studio/, but EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau admitted recently that the game was a commercial flop, describing it as a failed gamble.

"I don't have any response to what Frank said. I think both EA and Starbreeze can look back at it and say that we could have done stuff differently," Nermark said.

"If you ask anyone about any game in production they probably would say the same thing."

Syndicate, a co-op-friendly sci fi shooter rebooting a classic tactical IP, arrived on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 early this year and sank without a trace.