Sensible Software - Decline

Decline

While Sensible had a strong presence on the machines that dominated the late 80s and early 90s they never really repeated this success on the newer machines such as the PlayStation that came to prominence in the mid '90s. Their trademark look of cute 2D characters had slipped out of vogue with the advent of cheap 3D rendering abilities and titles such as Actua Soccer and FIFA turned to 2.5D and 3D gradually shoving the Sensible Soccer series into the sidelines despite Sensible's belated attempt to convert the game to 3D in 1998.

Sensible Golf, a simple golf video game (not a simulation), in classic Sensible style, did not perform well in the market and with most of Sensible's staffing resources having been thrown into a very progressive but politically unreleasable political hot potato of a game called Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll that had initially been signed by Warner International Entertainment and subsequently dropped by their purchasers, GT Software, Sensible's days were looking numbered and the owners were looking for a smooth exit.

Though never finished, this final epic project was discussed in certain sections of the media outside of the game press. It was featured in an Independent on Sunday article in the summer of 1997. Two years later in 1999, the pre-rendered music videos - created for the game with animation by Khalifa Saber - were showcased within a feature piece on Ex Machina, a show covering the CG animation scene on .tv.

Another cancelled game that was being developed during this final development period was a PlayStation action game titled Have a Nice Day. Though screenshots of the game have never been released, the title was a first person shooter, inspired somewhat by the simplicity of Re-Loaded, a "first generation" PlayStation title by Gremlin Interactive. Jon Hare has spoken about the project in various interviews, but has never discussed the game's content and gameplay features in depth. Aside from the likelihood that the game contained themes as controversial as Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll, in an interview with Total Video Game's Derek dela Fuente, Jon did mention that the title had "hit some technical barriers" during its development. Sensible were not known to have worked on the PlayStation hardware before, which may have made getting to grips with the console's problematic 3D libraries a huge issue for the inexperienced team.

Sensible Software was eventually sold in 1999 to veteran UK games publishers Codemasters and since this date Jon Hare has maintained a close working relationship with Codemasters designing many games for them including a variety of updates of both Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder.