Warrior's Lair PS3/Vita cross-play RPG cancelled

Warrior's Lair, the action RPG which debuted PS Vita and PS3 crossplay at E3 2011, has been cancelled. IGN received confirmation from Sony that the game formerly known as Ruin will never see the light of day after several quiet delays and studio transfers.

"Sony Computer Entertainment can confirm that Warrior’s Lair for PS Vita is no longer in development," a Sony representative said. "We apologize to those who pre-ordered the title and ask that they contact their retailer directly to cancel their pre-sale."

Warrior's Lair began development at Pain studio Idol Minds, but was transferred to Sony San Diego Studios in early 2012. Warrior's Lair looked like a mobile Diablo, but it promised to shake up the familiar formula with drop-in multiplayer and personalized lairs which rivals could raid for loot.

The Sony rep pointed out that Vita still has more than 85 titles scheduled to launch by the end of 2013.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 finally cancelled; Devs form new MMOFPS studio

So is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 dead or what? Last year saw S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 cancelled as studio GSC Game World collapsed in a cloud of radioactive gossip, only for January to bring the revelation that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 isn't dead after all. So which is it for the game with the least-typable name in the history of the medium? Spoiler: The first one. Having for worked on the sequel - unpaid, mind - for upward of a year, the game's developers have finally said they simply can't get the rights necessary to complete and release the game. But even cancerous mushroom clouds have a silver lining.

Above: Scratchy film, subliminal bacteria and giant spiders - they know how to put together a dev diary over in that Ukraine

Here's the first developer diary from the newly-formed Vostok Games, composed of GSC employees still eager to get a decent game out of the ten years' hard work they put into the sadly-deceased sequel. The team's already got a good start on a decidedly S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-esque MMOFPS tentatively titled Survarium, which it's billing as a free-play shooter set in a post-apocalyptic world similar to S.T.A.L.K.E.R's Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone.

Above: Here's the first concept art released for Vostok's newly-announced Survarium

As Vostok explains, with the loss of S.T.A.L.K.E.R's Chernobyl setting, the stage was set for a game with similar concerns on a much larger scale – so Survarium will comment not just on Chernobyl, but on more recent environmental catastrophes like those in Fukushima and the Mexican Gulf. Vostok is projecting a late 2013 launch for Survarium; keep an eye on the new studio's Youtube channel for future updates, all of them hopefully just as subliminally perturbing as the first.

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