OtherSide Entertainment cancels project Argos and cuts 17 staff positions following poor financial performance of Thick as Thieves
OtherSide Entertainment, the game development studio founded by Deus Ex creator Warren Spector, has officially canned its next game project, which has the code name Argos. Representatives of the company have indicated that the decision to cancel the game was motivated by challenging market conditions, and not the project being subpar. Following the cancellation, the developers have cut 17 positions.
This formation of the organization can be seen in the context of the poor financials posted by the studio on their last cooperative stealth action title ( Thick as Thieves ), which was designed as a significant live service title, but cutback prior to publication to a 2 player stealth game. The push for the cutback publication proved inadequate for the studio's day to day titles, leaving a significant budget shortfall.
Expectations to how content and gameplay would be implemented was falling short with the playerbase straight after launch, saying there was a substantial lack of content and many technical issues plaguing the game. However even though the developer team did say they would continue to post launch support these issues, the dwindling player count and commercial failure meant they couldn't keep up the level of support required. The commercial failure of the game along with the cancellation of Argos has ultimately resulted in the developer having to drastically downsize in their planning of future development pipelines.
