CVG Claims This is Vegas Cancelled After 50 Million Dollar Investment

According to a “cast iron source” close to the development of This is Vegas, the GTA-in-Las-Vegas-Jersey-Shore-sim, has been canned after an estimated $50 million worth of investment.

CVG alleges that after three years of development of the game, which seemed to me to be a stag-party simulator set in the Nevada desert, has been culled by owners Warner Brothers. Before WB bought Midway for $33 million, the original development team, Surreal Software, had been disbanded with its members filtered down to other studios who carried on production.

CVG‘s source reports that before this, Midway had spent an impressive $43 million on the game and according to its source, the studio had “burn rate of $250,000 per month” for the continuing time it spent on development.

CVG’s source notes: “It’s a ridiculous waste of money, a silly budget when you think that games like Konami’s Saw – which made profit – were built with around $3m.”

The rising cost of game development, especially in a recession, has been in the limelight recently after Dundee-based studio Realtime Worlds collapsed. All Points Bulletin, RTW’s last game, is said to have had a budget of over $100 million despite the fact it has underperformed dramatically – and that the staff were seemingly aware of the problems. 130,000 people are said to be “registered players” of the game, but how many of them are actually active is unknown.

We’ll have to see if the reports turn out to be true, but Warner Brothers probably would have already commented to the contrary if it was inaccurate.

Image source.