Development
Announced during GDC 2001, Torn was subject to much interest by the press, because the team behind the cult classic Planescape: Torment was revealed to be developing it, and the game itself was to use the much-praised SPECIAL system. According to lead designer David Maldonado, the game had been in development for "about fourteen months" before its announcement.
Torn made a playable showing at E3 2001. Although the preview was an early build of the game with several graphical features disabled, it was generally well received. However, the division director of Black Isle Studios, Feargus Urquhart, later stated that the switch from the LithTech 2.3 engine to the upgraded 3.0 version shortly before the E3 presentation had "significant ramifications", and the amount of changing and recoding necessitated by the switch caused the game's E3 showing to suffer.
In July 2001, after circulation of rumors, Torn was officially cancelled. Following the incident, fifty-six members of Black Isle Studios' staff were laid off. The ultimate reason for Torn's cancellation was eventually revealed by Feargus Urquhart:
"I don't know if we ever released an official reason on why was canceled, but in a nutshell, the game was canceled because it was not going to be done in time to get Interplay the revenue the company needed to continue operations. That sounds like it was all Interplay's fault, but that's really not the case. The project was not going well and continued to be an ongoing challenge."
At least a few other members of the development team contested this appraisal off the record, however, and management issues as well as unreasonable expectations for another Baldur's Gate-style hit have been mentioned.
Read more about this topic: Black Isle's Torn
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