Bulletstorm Sequel Unceremoniously Dumped

Ardent fans of the acclaimed Bulletstorm first person shooter will be disappointed to hear that Electronic Arts have unceremoniously dumped the sequel, blaming it on a less than perfect console to PC port and piracy (of course). Polish developer, People Can Fly, have now been moved to a new project by Epic Games.

GameSpot had a chat with Epic Games president Mike Capps about the sequel to Bulletstom, at PAX east this weekend. Capps said, “We thought a lot about a sequel, and had done some initial development on it, but we found a project that we thought was a better fit for People Can Fly. We haven’t announced that yet, but we will be announcing it pretty soon.”

“I’d love to go back [to Bulletstorm]. I think there’s more to do with Bulletstorm. Heck, it kind of ended wanting more. I’d love to see another project, but right now we don’t have anything to talk about.” Yes, that’s right, an ending that hints at a sequel, but then leaves you dangling forever. Unfortunately, it didn’t love up to EA’s sales expectations: “I think Bulletstorm was very critically successful, and I think a lot of folks really enjoyed seeing something new. From a sales perspective it was good, but not amazing. I think EA was hoping we’d do better.”

And of course now the bit where he blames it on piracy: “We made a PC version of Bulletstorm, and it didn’t do very well on PC and I think a lot of that was due to piracy. It wasn’t the best PC port ever, sure, but also piracy was a pretty big problem.” Of course, the very unpopular decision to tie it to Games for Windows Live (GFWL) wasn’t mentioned at all. Could this have also caused poorer sales? Hard to say and it’s just as hard to say that piracy reduced sales, too.