Dark Matter Removed From Steam, Team Allegedly Let Go

The dark saga of unfinished Metroidvania scare-'em-up Dark Matter continues. When last we left our intrepid, um, not-really-a-hero-at-all, it had tossed up a "To Be Continued" screen and blamed the fickle whims of Kickstarter for its wet thud of an ending. However, publisher Iceberg Interactive replied to justifiable outrage by claiming that "a more conclusive and satisfying ending" is on the way. Even so, that hasn't stopped both GOG and Steam from purging their virtual shelves of the half-baked action-adventure, and now, if a report from Gamasutra is to be believed, the recipe for disaster is still boiling away. Apparently, many members of developer Interwave were let go months before Dark Matter came out, and the original team is not involved with the new content at all.

Gamasutra claims to have spoken with a number of sources, and they allegedly offered the following:

"The entire Interwave team, minus two management staffers, were let go during July and August. When the Kickstarter failed, the original idea was to package it up as Dark Matter: Episode 1 and use sales of the game to re-hire the original team and carry onwards - however, this plan fell through."

So, if Gama's sources are indeed correct, "an external company" is now handling Dark Matter's ending. Not exactly an ideal situation, huh?

It's tough to say where things go from here. At least Iceberg is trying to patch up Dark Matter's gaping, void-of-space-revealing hole with something, but the whole situation is just unfortunate. I suppose we'll see in time what Iceberg and co come up with, but I doubt this is what anyone - players, potential backers, or developers - wanted for the game. For this game without an ending, that might be the most unhappy ending of all.