Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard has confirmed that RuneScape successor MechScape has been canned just prior to its release.

The decision, he told GamesIndustry.biz, was made in August when the assembled game failed to meet the standards of Jagex's new CEO and his team.

"Initially the reason for building MechScape was that we would learn all the lessons from RuneScape having run it for around four years at the time.

"It got near completion and we discovered, oops, it didn't do all of those things that we wanted it to. So we went back to the original design document and said 'let's do it again'."

Cancelling the project at such a late stage has made for an expensive learning curve, admitted Gerhard, although he agreed the company's continued financial success helped the situation.

"Yes, it's a luxury that we are doing well and we can afford to make the decision. I didn't make the decision lightly because it's effectively cost us tens of millions of pounds. Maybe more."

But it was vital, he said, for Jagex to release a game it was proud of and that its team would want to play. “ It's crucial to me we don't just ship a title because we've built it.”

"The previous game wasn't a game that we want to play. As much as we ended up thinking of it like a baby – we were 'reasonably' proud of it, we thought it was a good experience and we'd achieved something – it wasn't a game ready for launch.

"It was expensive. I hope never again to have to make the same decision twice. But it was the right decision."

Not everything has been lost however, and Gerhard says that much of the game – including its engine - will be reused in the new secret project the Jagex development team is now working on.

"A lot of the content will change," he said, "a lot of the gameplay will change. Exactly what the game will look and feel like I don't actually know because the guys are working on it as we speak. But we've got that arsenal of lessons and everything else."

This new title will be released within a "meaningful time frame" he added with a smile. At Game Horizon's Best of British event on Wednesday, Simon Seefeldt, the company's head of business development, was more specific, saying Jagex's next game will appear sometime in 2010.

Ending on a positive note, Gerhard said the new MMO's development team has been "galvanized" by the decision that's been taken.

"I've been in the organisation for two years now and I've never seen that team so excited since I joined," he said.

"They've spent years of toil on this and never quite got there, and now the entire team, sees what the plans are to change and what the new game will be. There's a real buzz in that studio, which is fantastic. The guys are doing an incredible job of bringing this to market."

Runescape creator Jagex has made the decision to scrap its long-in-production second MMO MechScape, it has emerged.

The plug was pulled on the futuristic title in August – despite a formal announcement in March that the game was due for release later this year –
costing the firm tens of millions of pounds.

However the firm still plans to launch a new MMO in 2010.

"Initially the reason for building MechScape was that we would learn all the lessons from RuneScape having run it for around four years at the time,"
said Gerhard in an interview with GI.

"It got near completion and we discovered, oops, it didn't do all of those things that we wanted it to. So we went back to the original design document
and said 'let's do it again'."

"Yes, it's a luxury that we are doing well and we can afford to make the decision. I didn't make the decision lightly because it's effectively cost us tens of millions of pounds. Maybe more."

It’s a brave CEO who cancels his company’s second largest project after four years of development and shortly before release.

But that’s exactly what Mark Gerhard of Jagex has done with MechScape. The new MMO from the makers of Runescape has been canned shortly before release.

When Mark was first appointed, I questioned the wisdom of moving an internal CTO up to be CEO of a company that was so dominated by the personality and thoughts of the original founder.

But this announcement suggests that I may have been wrong.

I have no particular inisght on MechScape – I’ve never seen the game and I don’t know if it was as disappointing as reports suggest.

But I do know that bringing out a successful sequel to Runescape is critical to Jagex. They need to prove that they are a scaleable business that can repeat their outstanding success otherwise they are destined to begin a slow slide into obscurity.

If MechScape was under par, it would have been an easy decision to launch it and see what the public thought. Instead, Jagex has canned it, despite tens of millions of investment, because it just isn’t good enough.

That’s a brave decision. And it shows that Mark has the courage of his convictions.

So good on them, and I wish them luck with “son-of-MechScape” or whatever it will be.

'Cancel' is a fancy way of saying completely changing.

Thanks for wasting our time on a wild goose chase, Jagex. Thanks for feeding us misinformation for god knows how long - you know; as one of if not THE main fansite for your upcoming MMO it's really humbling that you resolve tell us scarcely anything about what's going on behind the scenes yet, lo and behold, here you are confessing EVERYTHING to some rogue websites on a whim that haven't taken nearly as much interest in your company's wellbeing for the past 2 years as we have. I think we deserve a public apology for wasting our time with this shit AND for putting up with a company that is interested only in the time it takes to grab the fivers from our wallets and not the time to speak to us on a regular basis.

Thanks.

MSW was the first to know about this. Mod MMG told us himself a few days ago on these forums before these websites were told anything.
It's still being released in 2010 also, it's not like it has been properly canceled.

That's exactly what I thought that it was meant to be interpretted as. We've got to remember we are a lot more privileged in knowing a lot more detail and specifics related to StellarDawn as members of MechScape World compared to a generic Gaming News Website.

The decision was made "back in August" - why weren't we informed sooner?

The decision was made "back in August" - why weren't we informed sooner?

The decision was made "back in August" - why weren't we informed sooner?

Well this explains why Henrique left.

I shouldn't even bother giving you a proper reply, and rather, just tell you to stop acting like a spoilt dick.
but - the CEO exclusively told us first. I'd imagine it takes more than just a day to fully decide if they're willing to blow £10M+ on a 4 year project.
What more do you want.

Because that decision is a private matter? Whoop de doo, you're a person on a fan site. That doesn't give you, I or any other member on this forum any "super dooper badge of awesomeness" that allows us to know of a private business matter in, you know, a business!

I use Microsoft products, that doesn't give me any right to know what their planning or what they have decided to cancel. Like everyone else, I have to rely on the press to inform me of these things.

Here you are sometimes granted the privilege (yes, a privilege) to see a more personal response from Jagex.

I would just like to clarify that MechScape as a project hasn't been canceled but rather the name and has been renamed Stellar Dawn. Stellar Dawn is still going ahead and if you read in the article, is the new project (or game) that we're working towards.

Just to clarify, MechScape hasn't been canceled but has been reborn under Stellar Dawn which we are now working on.

Although, other than what I've said, I don't have any more information that I can give.

The decision was made "back in August" - why weren't we informed sooner?

Maybe they can release what they had as "Mechscape" Classic? I mean it would be a shame to just completely scrap it.

The new game will probably take 3-4 years to make so as always, GF Jagex, thanks for wasting my time and many others.

So this forum is just a waste? Ren's research is just obliviated? This is how its going to be? Is this real?! WTF we should at least be able to have the beta version.

Hey Ren,
Good question, So what up with Mechscape?
I suppose I’m going to upset a few people because I can’t say too much about the game in development and I don’t want to steal the teams thunder with regards to their upcoming press release but I can talk a little about where we are today and how we got here.
Some 5 Years ago, Andrew and a few members of the then RuneScape team asked the question “if we could make RuneScape all over again, what would we do differently?” and a flurry of debate ensured �" surprisingly whilst RuneScape was a runaway success there were a number of things they would do differently if they could do it all over again, also a ton of ideas came in on completely new types of game ideas that simply wouldn’t fit in the RuneScape universe.
So almost immediately they began working on a game design document for a new MMO called Mechscape. A team was formed and they began work on the game, the team rapidly grew into a dedicated Game Studio approaching the size of RuneScape.
Since then a lot of things have happened, our chiefly “secret” project started becoming uncovered layer by layer by a Communist called Ren  and other capitalists on MSW. As a result various people in the company made a few comments about the game over the last few years, with the community piecing together more and more of the game over time. On the 10th August this year all the various parts of the game we finally put together and Andrew, the Mechscape Team and I got to actually play the full game.
Sadly the game was not as complete as we wanted and we spent the first few months trying to “fix” the game where we could. About a month or so ago we took the decision to stop trying to “fix it” as we still wouldn’t have the game we wanted and the game certainly did not meet all the objectives and specifications established in the original game design document and therefore it would be better to go back to the founding principles and build the game we always wanted �"Andrew is now overseeing the project and working very closely with the team to build Stellar Dawn, not all was lost as we naturally have developed the game engine substantially over the last few years and the new designs benefits massively from this as well as a ton of experience within the team as to what works and what doesn’t. So whilst the content and a lot of the game play will change from what was previously built almost everything else will go straight back into Stellar Dawn.
It goes without saying that we are all 100% behind the development teams and are confident that we will be able to publish a fantastic sci-fi MMO for your all, I also would like to add that I have never seen Andrew and the team so excited about this project since I joined the Studio.

- 2. Can you shed any light on why Jagex recently trademarked "Devious Games" and "Cunning & Devious Games"? - These are just some ideas we are playing with at the moment, nothing substantive planned yet.
- 3. Want some space pie?- I'm worried about what you may have put in the space pie Ren cool.gif