Stargate: Still Not Here Yet, Have a Replacement…

With no end in sight to the development of Stargate Worlds, Cheyenne Entertainment has been taking quite a bit of flak, being called the Duke Nukem Forever of MMOs, a ponzi scheme, and other names of varying levels of ridiculous and accuracy. Between the lawsuits and the delays of funds, you’d think there was no chance of the MMO ever coming out.

But this article has nothing to do with Stargate Worlds, the anticipated upcoming MMO by Cheyenne Entertainment. No, this article is about Stargate Resistance, a third person shooter that isn’t so much massively as it is multiplayer and online. Two out of three, and a 66% is technically a passing grade if you set your sights low enough. Stargate Resistance, whose website was just recently revealed above, is a third person shooter being developed by Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, the minds who did not bring you Stargate Worlds. It is set for release in Q1 2010 which makes just a few months until the first official delay.

More after the break…

I hope all of your first impressions were along the lines of “gee, they must be really short on cash,” because you would be 100% correct, on a hunch that even I had figured out before I hunted down this excerpt from CME:

“SGW will be worked on; but at a much lower rate compared to that of Resistance…That is until such a time when SG:R has become comfortable financially (enough) to then begin ramping up SGW again.”

You know, I’ve heard this quote before, and for once I won’t be quoting Mark Jacobs. I happen to remember a company back in 2006 called Ritual Entertainment that had high hopes for the Sin: Episodes series. The company, unknown to the community, planned to finance the second episode on the sales from the first, and subsequently went under after one episode. Ritual was sold to MumboJumbo and now works exclusively on casual titles.

I don’t want to say that Stargate Worlds is a lost cause, but I’ve seen this before, many times. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is not so much on the path to reinvention as much as it is at the fork in the road that can only be crossed under certain conditions. One of the following will happen:

This is the “everything went perfectly” outcome: Stargate Resistance launches, does well, and is used to fund Stargate Worlds and pay the employees. Stargate Worlds launches late 2010/Early 2011.
Going further down to earth: Stargate Resistance launches, does well, and Cheyenne takes a heavy look at Stargate Worlds and says “you know, this just isn’t working out.” Aside from a few more shooters, Cheyenne branches the Stargate brand to other forms of games, including real time strategy, console, and other areas of entertainment. Stargate Worlds is put on the back burner and is left there for eternity.
Hitting the pavement without a parachute: Stargate Resistance is either delayed to oblivion or launches to a less than stellar performance. Considering these losses, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment either closes for good, is acquired by another company, or continues the same path it has been on for the past two years: perpetual delay.

More on Stargate, or lack thereof, as life moves on.