Mistwalker cancels Cry On

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi came out swinging in 2004 when his newly formed studio Mistwalker announced a trio of new games: Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360, and Ash: Archaic Sealed Heat for the Nintendo DS. By the end of 2005, that list had grown to four, with the role-playing-game-oriented studio revealing a partnership with AQ Interactive to create the Xbox 360-exclusive action RPG Cry On.

Unfortunately, Cry On has dried its tears for good. On Christmas Day, AQ Interactive announced via its official Web site that its collaboration with Mistwalker has been canceled. The game maker attributed its decision to shelve the project to the property's uncertain franchise potential as well as current global economic conditions, which caused many game-industry casualties last year.

"To everyone who is looking forward to the release, we deeply regret that we're experiencing so much trouble," AQ Interactive said in a statement.

Blue Dragon Plus, a DS edition of Mistwalker and AQ's underwhelming Xbox 360 RPG released in August 2007, is currently in development at Ignition Entertainment. The portable game is expected to arrive on Nintendo's handheld next month.