Cancelled $60million GTA Rival: This Is Vegas - Game History Secrets
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มี.ค. 2020
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Today on Game History Secrets we talk about secret history behind GTA's Cancelled Rival: This Is Vegas. In development by Surreal Software for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Xbox 360, This Is Vegas was an open-world GTA styled game that was ultimately cancelled due to troubles with Unreal Engine 3. The game was originally set to be published by Midway Games, but due to bankruptcy, Midway was forced to sell a majority of its assets to Warner Bros., including This Is Vegas and developer Surreal Software, in 2009. Warner Bros. officially cancelled the project in August 2010.
Liam Robertson is a video game researcher and archiver. In his spare time, Liam creates videos and articles for various outlets, and will also be contributing to the Did You Know Gaming channel.
Special thanks to Mr Talida: • This is Vegas - Intro ...
Facebook: didyouknowgaming
Twitter: @DidYouKnowGamin
Website: DidYouKnowGaming.com
Sources/Further Reading:
gamespot.com/this-is-vegas/news/
ign.com/games/this-is-vegas
ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/...
engadget.com/2008/09/22/midwa...
lawinsider.com/contracts/1dOf...
vimeo.com/309024935
• The Suffering Part 1 -...
web.archive.org/web/201008270...
nytimes.com/2008/11/03/techno...
engadget.com/2010/01/12/warne...
gamespot.com/articles/midways...
gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_in...
fool.com/investing/general/20...
#ThisIsVegas #Cancelled #Gaming - เกม
I was a senior environment artist on this. Built a lot of the exteriors and interiors here, with help from a massively talented team. It was huge. Most of this... actually all of it is pretty accurate.
Man, I remember being excited for this game like 12 years ago. Had read the Game-informer piece and everything
That's very cool.
I remember that Game Informer piece. Specifically a line about how it aims to capture that fantasy of going to Vegas with nothing but $20 in your pocket and making a big killing and living the high life.
same dude
Gang star vegas
Me too, I watched it on G4tv. The memories! I think it was too ambitious and would have been not very good though. it looks like second life.
looks more like a western yakuza than GTA rival tbh
hmmm..
true, it might have worked better if they scrapped the driving and shootouts like Yakuza
I was going to say Yakuza with less oh Japan.
That actually makes it seem a little better than it already was, and now I'm bummed it was canned.
The latest Yakuza games do a better job at being a open world game than GTA V.
Someone: What about "less is more?"
Midway: Ah, but if less is more, just think of how much more "more" will be!
Clearly, it'd be less.
I hate you
Yngwie Malmsteem: "How can less be more?" *shreds* 🎸👌😎
was that a frasier reference?
RXdash78 I peeped that too 👀
Guys, remember long-sleeve shirts under short-sleeve shirts?
I memba
Whatever happened to that? Of all the casual fashion trends, that one was the most tolerable.
GuestZer0 its still trendy, never went away
@@TheAstroTaco13 i dont know how to tell you this man. it might be acceptable if youre in your mid 30's as casual, acceptable wear, but in no way "trendy."
literally nothing is "trendy" 20's years later, unless its been long enough that its allowed to have a comeback, as all fashion does. that is very much not the case with this style.
not in this manner. in a manner of modern layering in say techwear, sure. but not in this dressed down sort of look.
deep citrus i live on the coast in australia and its pretty popular among chicks and dudes who skate or surf. our popular fashion is a lott different to america in some circles
This game could be as good as Saints Row. Too bad that Midway management and the early Unreal Engine 3 crippled it.
I think it at least would have made it's money back if they'd released it
@@somedude7447 Then what's the point? And you forget that they would've spend even more money to promote it, so the 60 million or 85 million of the final product would probably reach a 9 digit number
"this game could be as good as saints row, too bad that everything ever that was planned was horrible"
Is this your idea, really? I mean dude half of the creators and devs thought they hsouldnt have violence in it. What the fuck were you to do in this game if it was just drive to minigame fest. Also other 2008 midway games sucked. im glad they stopped making crap like MK vs DC and this and shit
@dayzgone I vaguely remember such notion of a project. Have you remembered what was it called?
Really, it is pretty much just Epic's fault for selling an engine that wasn't ready for broader commercial use until 2008, 2 years after "This is Vegas" entered production and another 2 years before "APB: All Points Bulletin" would demonstrate UE3's continued inability to handle large-scale environments.
What a throwback! I remember seeing screenshots of This Is Vegas in a magazine while in hospital in 2007.
Why were you hospitalized?
@@SquishyZoran I had Appendicitis at 17 but school was over anyway. Remember when you read gaming news on Teletext? That's I found out SoulCalibur IV was happening.
Step Hen That doesn’t sound fun at all! And I don’t think teletex was in the US so I don’t have any memory of it.
I would still play This Is Vegas.
Zer0_TE Jus put Mafia IV in not-Las Vegas.
Looks like a bunch of mediocre mini games lmao
Zer0_TE Try Gangstar: Vegas
It looks terrible
hanzo It is terrible but that’s the closest you can get
>Plot is about preventing Las Vegas from becoming a family tourist attraction and keep it an adult vacation spot, all in a satirical way
>Devs are conflicted with adding guns and who they show women
Ok.
Kyle Dean - Someone didn’t pay attention
@@NatsumiTakanawaTheir reason didn't really change how it was contradictory. If they thought graphic violence (Wrath) and sexually suggestive content (Lust), weren't a fit for their game, they shouldn't have made the game about Las Vegas (AKA Sin City) to begin with. They should've set the game in a Los Angeles club district instead if those mechanics were so important to their vision of the game.
IKR
In all fairness, even if it's a slightly silly concern to have for a game like this, it's arguably a good thing that the thought "hey, this isn't exactly the best portrayal of women" at least crossed their minds. Shows that they're self-aware enough that they know exactly what they were doing, as opposed to more ignorant or even unpleasant motivations.
I don't really get the gun thing though. Like, even Yakuza has handguns. Was "he's just knocked out" too implausible for their totally serious game?
I'm glad someone mentioned this game . I remembered being so hyped and reading up on it back in the old days of the internet . They even hyped it through GameStop to showing its gameplay flicks . I really thought this game was gonna see the light of day .
I remember watching the gameplay vids everyday waiting for this damn game to come out.
I thought I made this memory up. It really was a real thing.
@@hattyhenben You did... now go back to sleep.
Old days of the internet? 2008 was far from young
Ivory soul , I remember this game being in development for years . It was about 2001 -2003 when we all first seen this game . I mean old days of the internet because those were dial up days . Now everyone is on the internet no more dial up. No more causing interruptions to house calls if you're on the web. No slow motion loading screens . meant dial up days . They all knew what I meant .
“Who had been losing money for yEEEEEEHHHz”
Lmao
He really does butcher it.
Lol why did I read your comment right when it happened in the video 😱
Same here... It happens to me so fucking often that it freaks me out....
4 and a half yehhhz! Lol.
I turned subtitles on just to see how the closed captions would spell the name Chow Yun-Fat.
Sharon farts.
🤣
@matt fahringer When you meet people for the first time ask them to pull your Fahringer!
@matt fahringer oooh aren't you sooo stoic
@matt fahringer 😆😅😂🤣
Jaime McDohl captain sum ting Wong.
Can you imagine giving your blood, sweat and tears for four years to a project only to see it get sacked. I would have been crushed.
As long as you get paid.
From all I hear, working on videogames for the average grunt is nothing like making art.
And then possibly laid off as a lot of the company was.
That's how the video game industry is. It happens more then you think.
better than ending up with Duke Nukem Forever
@@AliFareedMC is this game that bad? I see everyone making fun of him but he seems to be cool
It's games like this that I wish after an amount of time goes by that the currently completed parts of the game could be open source or something so other people can finish it cuz why not?
Im surprised that no employee leaked a build or even the source code after the bankruptcy
The amount of footage and gameplay you've shown suggests it was far into development. Surely someone could've taken it up? Would really have loved this
I don't know. Sounds to me like they never really knew what kind of game they wanted to make. Like Anthem.
Ex Surreal software staff have said its mostly an illusion. Bits were complete. Most of it was not and very little actually worked together. Missions were mostly unimplemented. The large map wasn't done. Most of the locations weren't even finalised. It looks way more complete than it actually was and needed way more work.
As usual, your research, detective work and reporting are top notch. Marvelous job you guys. Very entertaiming.
It's actually pretty incredible.
Highly professional.
"years" gets me everytime.
"yyeahs"
On his channel he talks about "Fucktur Foive" a lot
I was almost cancelled, but I somehow got released early, now I'm full of glitches.
That sounds like your trying to say surviving aborted crackbaby🤔
@Tommy Kavanaugh nicely said
Product of EA 😢
Autonomous Breathing and Heartbeat DLC $10K each.
The fact that a character looks like Bill Murray is cool as hell.
I remember hearing about this one on G4 back in the day
Onion Silk Same! I also remember reading about it in EGM.
@@snailwithmail
Oh yeah, EGM and Game Informer too.
Ha ha, simpler times
@@onionsilk NUUUUU WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MENTION G4? 😢😢😭😭😭😭
Same here. My username was actually made because of G4
If G4 was still around it would be the only reason I'd get cable
It really sucks that we didn't get this game. I don't think this would have been breathtaking, but it would have been a nice addition to my games library. Also, the idea of a GTA styled game set in Vegas seems like a perfect idea. And the inspiration from real life events in the story missions and side quests seems like an interesting concept.
I love videos like this, getting to see things that were almost completed but not quite is really neat. This sounds like it would've been a really fun game.
As a Vegas local I couldn’t see how well this would do when it comes to providing a substantial playable map. Vegas it’s self is a fun,gorgeous city with a good amount to offer but it’s also a really small city. It’s doesn’t take that long to get to one end of vegas to the other.
When you shown that image (early in the video)of Vegas, I had a brief flashback of me reading PSM magazine. Man, how times has changed.
I'm surprised no one has tried to bring this idea/IP back from the dead. I'd say put it in the hands of the people who made Saints Row and maybe we would get something a lot better than Agents of Mayhem and on par with Saints Row.
Definitely seems like something that THQ Nordic could resurrect
As much as companies were trying to copy CoD and go after that market share, copying something like GTA costs way too much to justify the risk.
I would have way more fun with this than AoM
No need though, Saints Row 5 might be revealed this year
Volition did confirm a "new Saints Row" game is in development almost a year ago
Related for anyone who never played it, Stranglehold was actually pretty damn fun, definitely recommend it
I was pretty excited for this to come out back in the day. Looked like it had a lot of potential. Great video as always!
The footage you get for these videos always amazes me.
i remember reading about this game in a game informer magazine or something years ago and wondering what ever happened to it
I first heard of the Wii in a PlayBoy I wasn't supposed to have, when I was still codename "Revolution."
It's the Girls of the Pac10, with Sara Jean Underwood on the cover.
Since we're sharing
Same.
Same, that was the last I ever heard of it.
I really wanted to play this, it sucks big nuts that they canceled this.
One of those Dreams fruitcakes will make a shitty recreation
Eh, I'm skeptical it would have been anything too special. It's very likely the satrical story would have been cliched or its mechanics and systems be done better by other games.
B I G N U T S
There’s no any games about Vegas other than fallout sadly
L pfp
I remember reading about this in a magazine and then seeing the videos on TH-cam. I was so hyped and then totally forgot about it until now.
I was really looking forward to this game growing up so sad the way everything unfolded, great video.
Sounds like the mobile game, Gangstar: Vegas
Yes I was thinking about that
@RoadRash NT his point was that its similar... dumbass
But that game was absolute garbage like all Gameloft games.
@@IvorySoul696 not all gameloft games are bad only 100% of them are
@@Marulauriu710 I mean if you're a kid with only Mom's Ipad, the Gangstar games feel like GTA V.
A GTA rival game where the villain is a mix between Walt Disney and Donald Trump?
I'm interested.
@Steven 1773 I'm pretty sure saints row came out in 2006 this was supposed to be out in 2007/2008
You're stupid
@Adam L No he wasn't, dumbfuck. Do some research and you'll see how stupid you sound.
The money would have printed itself if This Is Vegas was released.
A part of me feels like I remember this game, and another part feels like I’ve never even heard of this game before.
I'd love a game set in Vegas, but I'd imagine it kind of like the Yakuza games with mini games where you can Gamble and run your own businesses, and different restaurants and bars you can go to, but with characters and story inspired by a Scorsese movie.
The whole celebrity parody and silly tone of the game makes the concept feel kind of dated. I couldn't help but think of Duke nukem while listening to this.
WB Games should Revive it as an Americanized Yakuza.
@@conradojavier7547 this
I wanted this game SOO MUCH.
The concept is just freaking perfect. Warner Bros should revive the project and release it for the new gen
Im sure This is Vega would have saved Midway
I wish publishers could listen to studios more often. Things would be better for both sides. It's like with EA forcing every studio to use the Frostbite engine even though only DICE could use it and like UT3 engine, it was basically only good for smaller scaled games.
Facts! EA needs to stop forcing their studios to use engines their not accustomed to using. Frostbite is only good for DICE because they made it. Coding may not be easy for newcomers.
I wanted this game so bad back when it was still scheduled to come out. So happy somebody is finally making an in depth video about it!
I remember watching the dancefloor demo in 2008 and loving it so much!! I even asked game cashier when it was coming. It had been cancelled not long after. rip this is vegas. 😔💜
wow i wondered what happened to this. i even had downloaded a couple wallpapers from the official website. what a shame
Who ever suggested rocket bottle guns should of been fired on the spot.
They probably did, I doubt they would fit in with who ever survived to end up working on Shadows of Mordor.
as always, well researched, well-spoken, thanks for keep giving us content!
This could have been a good one. Vegas is such a perfect place for an open world. Tons of buildings and NPCs on the strip, tons of variety in cars, people etc. also you could have some dope side quests off the strip. This idea still has potential. Hell, it would even work if it were set in like a LA Noire time period when the strip was basically all owned by gangsters.
Thank you for this! This is easily the one game that I regret never coming out. More than Silent Hills PT, more than Mike Tyson’s World Class Track Meet with power pad functionality!
I may actually still have “This is Vegas” on preorder at GameStop, because you know, the future! LOL
Still disappointed we didn’t get this, such a cool concept
18:08 that is what sucks when big corporations like WB, SONY and MS become huge gaming publishers. They are always afraid of games that go after the rich and wealthy by lampooning them. Remember that MS forced RARE to take out jokes from Conker Live and Reloaded while back a few years ago Nintendo let them do whatever they wanted. Anything that might make the stockprice of a company go down because of bad publicity is shut down by these big companies and in turn games get censored or changed during development
Read about it and saw it on G4. Was hyped for this and always wondered what happened. Looked like a good portion was finished.
this game, two days to vegas and 8 days. i was so pumped for those games in the mid 2000's. So sad that they never get released. What a time to be alive the 2000's was now that i see it in retrospective.
To this day, I haven't forgotten this game's existance before it's cancellation. I will say, however, that this is my first time seeing gameplay footage with a HUD and not the same trailer I was introduce to all those years ago.
It looks like whatever happens in Vegas... Stays in Vegas
Quote from "The Hangover"?
I'm going to call the authorities
Official CocoZach Much older than that movie, hell older than me
Awesome video! Could you look into more titles like this? Maybe "Elveon" a self declared elvish action game or "Frame City Killer" which as I can best recall looked like Hitman and Watchdogs had a baby. I remember really looking forward to them as a teen and then never saw them again.
A game like this could definitely work today... Make it a period piece like circa 1975 Las Vegas and I'm all over it
Why can devs never get clubs right? Has anybody ever been to a nightclub before?
They are gamers or computer nerds. Of course not.
Kyle V. I’m just curious what you think is wrong with the clubs in this particular game? It looks pretty accurate to many of the clubs I’ve been in. Of course if you’re talking about a lack of NPCs, that’s more of a memory issue, especially in older games.
The Ballad of Gay Tony?
Dude says 'half a decade' like 5 years is too long to develop a game.
It was a ridiculous amount of time back then. Context matters.
I think because at the time and because of the scope of the game, the development time was above average. For example, GTA IV took 4 years, starting development right after San Andreas was released.
@@MinecraftLineLiar i think Duke Nukem forever was in development hell for around 10 year
Also half a decade of wasted time and money is quite substantial. The fact that it was ultimately cancelled makes those 5 years way more significant.
2-3 year is the norm for development time if the publisher is willing to spend.
I remember seeing the preview for this on G4TV during attack of the show. Kevin was pumped because the main guy had the same haircut as him lol
Damn this looks decent, They should still come out with a updated version.
lol decent.
How would they still put it out when this developer and publisher no longer exist? Who would be putting it out?
@@Largentina. wb still owns the ip but the devs are long gone
Imagine working on this game for nearly a decade and then one day downloading and playing GTA5 and being like, "yeah I give up" lol.
Yeah this game would have been overshadowed by GTA 4 (Released 2008), Sleeping Dogs (2012) and GTA 5 (2013). The company's decision canning the game is really financial saving considering they would've pushed a game on spiked rocks on day one.
There's literally an over FOUR YEAR gap in-between those games... Dogshit take is absolutely dogshit. Saints Row's success in spite of all your listed games says you don't know what in the flying fuck you are talking about.
Such an interesting story, thanks for posting.
i remember following its development and being excited about new screenshots.
7:43 THAT BEAT IT DANCE THO
"GTA V dev costs over $137 million"
C'mon WB, another 15 millions into it would have done nothing to your economy...
I WISH THIS WAS LONGER. I FIND THIS FASCINATING AND YOUR INSIGHT. TOPNOTCH.
I still remember seeing coverage of this game on X-Play and Attack of the Show....
18:10 I really want to see this Fear and Loathing parody cutscene!!!!
Broo I thought I was the only one in the comments that noticed the dodgy ass H.S.T
I don't think we missed out on much with this not coming out. It's more of a shame for the hard work the developers put in.
1:10 Bill from left 4 dead just walking through Vegas saying "Got some pills here"
I was so excited for this and had it pre ordered for ages!
Holy crap I forgot about wheelman
0:49 Hang on a minute is this the same David Zucker that produced & directed the naked gun films along with scary movie?
No, it's a different one.
@@melskunk Ok thanks
There should be a gaming company who finishes the unfinished projects that were given up on.
I remember THIS IS VEGAS by Midway from the GameInformer Magazine preview and was anticipating on it’s release. I was so disappointed that the game would not be released. I also feel the same about Gauntlet Legends for the Nintendo DS. That game was also by Midway and was quietly cancelled with the engine being used for another Nintendo DS game, G.I. Joe.
@ 3:00-4:20, sounds exactly like the issues 'All Points Bulletin' had and still have with running UE3. Oof.
Fun fact, All Points Bulletin is still alive today. It was bought by a company called Little Orbit back in 2017 and they've been renovating the game to make it run on a newer engine ever since, in preparation for a re-re-release.
@@wotwott2319 Yep, still going, I still play it too :) (and still waiting on that upgrade to 3.5 that we've been waiting on for so many years)
I don't remember hearing about this and it sounds like it would have been amazing.
Thanks again Liam!
Thank you for doing this video. Ive always wondered what the hell happened to this game. It even had a trailer n everything.
Oh damn, I remember reading about this in magazines. The screens looked very good, like better than what GTA IV ended up being.
(I love GTA IV)
Ah I see this is a "Wha Happun" type of deal where the company tried to bite more than they could chew. Sad
It hit the two fatal "wha happun" markers of changing engines and getting overambitious
I remember being excited about this game back in the day. Still sad it never came out
Imagine being Warner Bros, buying Midway and supporting This Is Vegas...a dark comedy narrative-driven but open world video game set in Las Vegas, then cancelling it in 2010.
By that time, you've made two Hangover movies (the second in production and coming out the following year), the third of which will return to Vegas and be the darkest one of the trilogy and be produced shortly thereafter and come out three years after cancelling This Is Vegas.
So not only did they express concern over an "unproven IP", something that they'll happily do with something like The Hangover, but they'll also dip their pen into the same ink (dark comedy set in Vegas) in a different part of the company (film), allowing Hangover to take off while feigning a video game with a similar tone and (presumable) target demo will not make any return on investment. That...that is insanity.
Especially when you take into account $15m would have been needed. That's...not much. That was $20m LESS than the budget of the FIRST Hangover movie, although if we're being fair, with a proposed budget of $75m after all is said and done it's closer to the budget of The Hangover 2. They would have EASILY made back a return on investment (and probably cover the cost of buying Midway) if they stayed the course and facilitated cross-pollination with Todd Philips and The Hangover - they could have created DLC for the third movie. The more I think about this...the more bewildered I become.
Then again, this is Warner Bros. It follows that their decisions are illogical, cherry-picked and nonsensical. They have this as a track record and nobody seems to care about changing it. Look at Justice League, and them ballooning it to $300m budget because they got scared from Batman v Superman's critical and press reception, as well as the domino effect it had on Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman. So they'll happily sink money into black holes that don't need money sunk into, but they're wary of sinking money into things that, if handled well and involved company-wide support, would have made their investment back and maybe some.
Warners continues to go down in history as the 21st century's most horribly managed media company.
8:42
The most realistic game that never was...
Axonium impotent rage from gta v
Great video. There are so many obvious things that could have been cut from the game to save time and money and prevent it's eventual cancellation. If the vehicles were removed and the world was compact and concentrated like Yakuza this could have been good. Also Warner Bros is an awful company.
Yeah but everyone has to brag that their open world is "twice as big as x" or something along those lines. I feel like thats more the corporate/marketing people tho. I love small dense worlds but they all have to be empty n huge sadly
I remember reading about this game in PC Gameplay. Never knew it didn't release.
I remember seeing this game in game informer and was really looking forward to it. And I could never remember the name of it until this video. Thank you guys!
Dammit, now I really want to play it
same here
Saints Row 2, the Third, and IV still looK more fun.
I remember back in like '06-'07 they kinda announced it and I was so excited. Along with ride to hell. The original ride to hell game is nothing like what we got, it's a whole other game. But This is Vegas I was really excited for, until GTA IV.
I forgot about this game!! I remember reading articles about this shame it was canceled
0:10 "fucktors"
Lmoa
18:22 Might wanna censor that...
loser
loser
@@MrJabez89 And here comes the eternal coomers.
Loser
10:22 Now we know what Trevor's mom was up to before she popped in during GTA V!
Damn, makes sense actually.
Yaay, Liam is back.
This would have been awesome
Who would've thought a game about gambling away your life savings would run out of money.
I also remember following this game's development, Midway had a ton of big plans for the 7th generation. But, due to Midway pissing away even more money on games that didn't sell well during the 2000s, and that their financial structure was such that they were ill-prepared for the GFC of 2007-12. They were doomed to collapse, GM-style. Quite a shame really, my dad would have liked this game. Since he was all about the campaigns being movie-esque at that time. Me? Well, I was more interested in the build-up of Gran Turismo 5(in addition to later laughing at people petitioning for Mega Man Legends 3 to be un-cancelled, because I knew from the start that such a decision wasn't going to happen), and that was a mess and a half.
People knew UE3 wasn't meant for open world games long before any game released with it. Notable exception being Arkham Knight, which at the end of UE3's life still had so many performance problems that they had to yank it off store shelves. The higher-ups really messed up.
it just sounds like its not worth becoming a game developer
I'm sure there's hardships with a job like that, but there's a reason why some folks do it as a hobby. If you want to someday become a developer follow your dreams, man!
Indie games are easier, cheaper, and usually run better than these big projects
Furries? You sure that's not just another mascot?
Someone Something it reminded me of a mascot that fights crime
Where is the line really, other then one getting payed for it's sad existence?
The difference being one's a job and the other one is mentally sickness
this is honestly such an interesting video about a video game no one ever talks about
I kept an eye on this game and i would have loved to eventually play it. But it never came to be. But this video gave me closure on this game. Enjoyed it thoroughly thank you for this