Developer Playdek announced that it has suspended development of Unsung Story, a Kickstarter-funded tactical RPG designed by Final Fantasy Tactics and FFXII director Yasumi Matsuno.
Playdek blames Unsung Story‘s hiatus on “development setbacks that are affecting our timeline and progress on the game, while also affecting what we need to do in the immediate future as a company.”
According to the company’s latest Kickstarter update, Playdek has shifted development priority to a handful of unnamed retail releases in order to remain solvent, putting Unsung Story on the backburner as a result. The project previously saw the departure of several key staffers, halting development progress entirely.
“We now have one internal team capable of working on a single project, and for the financial strength of the company we need to focus on a few products in the near term that have the ability to get to a retail release before Unsung Story is able to,” Playdek explains. “While this is a difficult choice to make, it is one we need to do for the ongoing financial health of the company.”
If these retail releases are successful, development of Unsung Story will resume, potentially with a new development team.
“We will explore options for outside development help, and will look to see if we are able to bring on an outside team that can assist us in furthering development,” Playdek stated. “While we aren’t assured this will come to fruition, we do want to make sure that we are exploring any options at hand that can make progress on the game.”
Unsung Story raised over $660,000 in backer pledges in 2013, promising a collaboration that would reunite Matsuno with Final Fantasy XII composer Hitoshi Sakimoto and Vagrant Stoyr translator Alexander O. Smith. The game missed its projected 2015 release date, and updates regarding its status became more infrequent over the last several months.
Playdek previously produced a number of board game adaptations for iOS devices, including Can’t Stop, Agricola, and Lords of Waterdeep. While Unsung Story‘s future remains uncertain, Playdek notes that it will “refine the release timeline as soon as we are able to.”
