Apple Takes Strong Stand on Allegedly Abandoned Sons of Anarchy Game

Published: April 7, 2016 2:28 PM /

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Sons of Anarchy Preview

Sons of Anarchy started off as a wildly popular American crime drama series and last year we saw the release of Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect an episodic adventure game for Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android. Being published by Fox Digital Entertainment and developed by Orpheus Interactive in partnership with Silverback Games the first episode was released on the 1st of February 2015. Not only was the first episode released but there was also a season pass that was sold for all future episodes in the series.

Worryingly since that initial release there has been no further updates to the game or from the developers Orpheus Interactive, who were supposedly working on episodes 2-10. As well as no news released by Orpheus if you were to check on their support site to ask about any progress updates you were greeted with the following message:

Our team is hard at work on episodes 2-10 of Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect. We will release all information via our SOAgame.com site and social media channels when new episodes or developments are ready.

Destructoid was the first to report that due to the lack of updates Apple had removed the app from the store and sent out emails to those who has bought the season pass notifying them that they were eligible for a refund. Partner Silverback Games told Destructoid that they fit into the development of Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect in more of a consultant role and have no clue on release schedules recommending trying to make contact with developer Orpheum Interactive. That contact is proving difficult for anyone as their Twitter account no longer exists and as I wrote this article their Facebook page was also removed, though it hadn't been updated in over a year, with the last one being March 24th, 2015 with most comments on what little posts they had being disgruntled patrons asking for updates on either the second episode or on the release of an android version. 

While it might look like a warning against purchasing season passes it is more likely that Orpheum Interactive, who while being made up of industry veterans had never made a game before, wasn't able to handle the release schedule of an episodic title or the difficulties that can come from porting a title to a different platform. A case like this shouldn't be mixed up with something like Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma where the developer pulled development but another case of an episodic game taking long periods would be Republique Remastered that had it's episode 1 release in 2013 only to finish with Episode 5 this March. That may be a more hopeful future then what appears to await Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect.

What do you think of Apples decisions to take down Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect and refund customers? Do you think companies should be held more accountable to deliver on promises? Let us know in the comments below.

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| Senior Content Manager

Andrew has written Video Game and Entertainment news, reviews, and guides for 10+ years. As Senior Content Manager, he assists in creating and editing… More about Andrew