At last year"s E3 gaming conference, Microsoft announced a Kinect-exclusive game from movie director Gore Verbinski (best known for directing the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies featuring Johnny Depp) called "Matter." Now, however, the game is no more.
According to a report by Joystiq, a Microsoft representative confirmed the canceling with the following statement: "Microsoft Studios is no longer pursuing this title. We have no further details to share at this time."
Not much information was ever released about the game, although it appeared to be a futuristic physics-based puzzle game of some kind. A pre-rendered trailer, shown above, was shown at E3 2012, though Microsoft never gave an official statement of what genre the game was.
Microsoft did, however, announce that the game would be released in 2013 and give the following synopsis: "Experience a hero"s journey across a mysterious and visually stunning world. "Matter" brings the unique vision of Academy Award-winning director Gore Verbinski exclusively to Xbox 360 and Kinect."
While Microsoft said it would not provide further details on the cancellation, two likely reasons are that the game either wasn"t developing in a satisfactory state or the company is focusing its attention on the upcoming launch of its next Xbox console. If the latter situation is the case, it"s possible Microsoft is diverting its production resources to games that will be launched with that console.
Source: Joystiq