Falcon 4.0 Gold: OIR now MIA

G2Interactive recently announced that it has ceased production on its combat flight sim Falcon 4.0 Gold: Operation Infinite Resolve.

In a statement posted on the G2Interactive site, the company stated that it "has determined that it is in the best interest of G2Interactive and that of the community to decline the contract amendment proposal offered by Atari. All effort to further develop any product based on the intellectual property owned by Atari has been discontinued."

As recently as three weeks ago, G2Interactive was boasting of progress the Falcon 4.0 title had made. On January 7, a post on the company site said, "work with Atari continues as we move forward in satisfying their requirements for the release of OIR."

When contacted, Atari had no official statement on the title's status.

Interestingly, G2 also announced today that it has its own flight sim in the works, tentatively titled Air Combat Command: Fighter Ops. Due in Q4 2004, this "new and extensive product introduces single-player, co-op multiplayer, and dynamic gameplay modes," says G2. The company predicts the new game, to be coproduced with GenAvSimulations, will be "the number one online/offline combat flight simulation on the planet."

G2 president Claude Cavanaugh spoke with GameSpot Tuesday morning regarding the game's demise. "The offer was grossly unreasonable," he said. "G2I and a new partner have elected to build a complex flight sim without any of Atari's property included thereby divorcing ourselves from any future attachment."

Referencing the strong community of hopeful Falcon fans, Cavanaugh added, "There is a niche community that loves this type of simulation and we will satisfy their needs. G2I will move forward with a new complex flight sim to fill the void created by the loss of Falcon."

Cavanaugh also addressed speculation G2 would repurpose tools and code already created for Air Combat Command: Fighter Ops. "The use of the [Falcon] intellectual property owned by Atari is forbidden by law," stated Cavanaugh. "Therefore we will start from the ground up with incremental releases until we have a fully functioning, complex, high fidelity combat simulation."