14 DAY TRIAL // Sleeping Dogs, the action title that began as True Crime: Hong Kong, is currently one of the starts of the summer launch season for publisher Square Enix. Thus, the company expressed amazement that rival Activision chose to cancel it.
Mike Fischer, who is the president and the chief executive officer at the United States division of Square Enix, stated to VentureBeat that, "The game was, in a sense, discovered. I’m making air quotes: ‘discovered’ by the folks in Wimbledon. The minute they showed it to us, we really felt like we had found a diamond in the rough." "Obviously the game was originally True Crime: Hong Kong from Activision. I can’t speak to why they let that go. I’m not going to speculate on their behalf. All I know is, they’ve gotta be crazy. Because this game is just fantastic," he added.
"There’s clearly a lot of inspiration from The Departed and Infernal Affairs. You play an undercover cop who starts to feel mixed loyalties. But the open world feels like Arkham City, the combat feels as good as a fighting game, the driving is as good as a Need for Speed, and the story is every bit as rich as compelling as a Mass Effect. All in one game," Fisher concluded.
He also mentioned Dead Island, another game that used an open-world structure, as a possible comparison point for Sleeping Dogs.
Dead Island had no recognition before it was first shown during E3 2011 and then went on to sell 2 million units worldwide.
Sleeping Dogs is being developed by United Front Games and the team has promised deep mechanics for all the game elements, from driving to hand-to-hand combat.
The game will be launched on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 on August 14 in North America and three days later in Europe.