14 DAY TRIAL // The remade Syndicate from Starbreeze and publisher Electronic Arts has failed to impress gamers and reviewers on launch, and the leader of the development team believes that the player base has to acknowledge that high expectations are hardly to blame for the reception.
Mikael Nermark, the president and the chief executive officer at Starbreeze, has told Joystiq that, “Syndicate comes with a lot of expectations. Such a great brand, such a great franchise. I don’t think we could’ve ever lived up to some people’s expectations.”
He added, “I love the original. When I got into the industry way back, RTS and that kind of game were my kind of game. But you always wanna add your touch to it, you wanna make it your game even though it’s built on a great franchise.”
Despite the problems with the game and its reception, Nermark is still happy with the way his company’s reboot turned out.
Syndicate was announced in late 2011 and was launched on February 21 in the United States and three days later in Europe.
The game has only managed to sell 34,000 units during its first month on sale in the United States, which is a very low number for a high-profile shooter that benefitted from the Syndicate name and from an Electronic Arts marketing push.
It is not yet clear whether the publisher has plans to deliver yet another Syndicate title in the future, but Starbreeze has said that it is ready to work on it as long as there’s interest from the fans.
Last week Starbreeze has acquired Overkill in order to boost its development capabilities.
The studio is currently working on two titles that bear the codenames Project Mercury and V13 and no official information has been given on either of them.
Overkill will also be able to develop its own Payday franchise.