Unity canned by Lionhead, Llamasoft

Calling it "a horrible decision for us to have to make," designer Jeff Minter confirmed that his game, Unity, had been cancelled. The game was being developed by Minter and was backed by Lionhead Studios founder Peter Molyneux.

News of Unity's cancellation was first announced on the Lionhead Web site early this morning, with additional comments from Minter and fans flooding game forums thereafter.

In somewhat rigid terms, a statement outlining the game's cancellation began, "Lionhead Studios and Jeff Minter have come to a mutual decision to cancel their collaborative project Unity with immediate effect. Unity was always an ambitious and experimental project and as is the case with such endeavours they do not always come to fruition."

Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux made the following statement, "Everyone at Lionhead has the utmost respect and admiration for Jeff's unique talents. However, we've both been in the industry a long time and it was becoming increasingly apparent to us that we would not be able to finish Unity in an acceptable time frame. On a personal level, I have very much enjoyed working with Jeff."

Officially, Minter chimed in, stating, "Everyone at Lionhead has been incredibly supportive and the decision to stop working on Unity has been a difficult one for us. But being realistic, I felt it was better for everyone concerned that we cease work on Unity. I'd like to thank Lionhead for all their help and support over the past two years."

Minter closed his personal post with a heartfelt update to the news, saying, "I don't know what happens next. Sorting all this out over the past couple of weeks has been tough."

Unity was to have been released sometime in 2005. The duo of Molyneux and Minter had been working on the project for the past two years.