Seventeen people were laid off at UK-based
Kinectimals and
Lost Winds developer Frontier Developments, as the unreleased game
The Outsider meets publishing challenges.
The game was originally to be published by Codemasters, with Frontier billing the game as the studio's first next generation project, but the publisher has since dropped the game.
The Outsider's existence emerged as far back as 2005.
According to a report on Rock Paper Shotgun, an
anonymous source said a new publishing deal with Electronic Arts was "almost settled" for
The Outsider, but the partnership reportedly fell through.
However, talking
to UK site Develop, Braben said, "There is still publisher interest in the project, and we haven’t cancelled." He added, "We have had to change priorities because of requirements on other unannounced projects. Some people have been moved, and we are very sad to have made some people redundant."
The Outsider is listed as an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game on Frontier's official website. The ambitious non-linear title is set in modern Washington D.C., where the main character plays a CIA operative who finds himself on the wrong side of the law.
Cambridge's Frontier Developments was founded in the 1990s by David Braben, developer on the space trading and combat game
Elite.
