UFG would ‘love’ to make a Sleeping Dogs sequel

UFG would ‘love’ to make a Sleeping Dogs sequel
David Scammell Updated on by

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United Front Games would “love to make another Sleeping Dogs”, the game’s executive producer Stephen van Der Mescht has said, adding that the team is “really happy” that the title ended up as a new IP, rather than a True Crime game.

Discussing the story of Sleeping Dogs’ resurrection in the latest issue of Game Informer, van Der Mescht stated that separating the project from the True Crime brand “was a huge relief”.

“We never viewed the game as a True Crime game (although it shared similar features), but the tone we were trying to achieve was quite different,” he said.

“All in all, we are really happy that we ended up back where we started with a new IP.”

Sleeping Dogs, previously known as True Crime: Hong Kong, was famously dropped by original publisher Activision in early 2011.

At the time, Activision said that the game “just wasn’t going to be good enough”, and dropping the game would allow the publisher to “focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world’s best interactive entertainment experiences.”

Square Enix picked up the rights to the game later in the year and rebranded it, before launching it at the end of August. The game has managed to perform consistently well since, reaching the top of the UK charts in three of the four weeks it’s been on sale.

“It took six months from the point of cancellation to resurrection,” van Der Mescht continued. “Square approached us very soon after the cancellation, but it was a tricky deal to negotiate with a developer and two publishers.”

Part of that negotiating process was in managing expectations, van Der Mescht suggested.

“Any relationship between a developer and publisher is a complex beast,” he continued. “The tricky things are aligning quality expectations, understanding on both sides what the teams are capable of and where they need support.

“Square Enix London Studios were great though. We worked very hard in the beginning to set those standards and ensure that expectations were aligned.”