Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has just published a new report detailing the collapse of Last Sentinel , the ambitious open world crime game backed by Tencent that was meant to go toe-to-toe with Grand Theft Auto . According to Schreier, the project has now effectively been shut down (although Tencent disputes this; more on that later) after six years of troubled development, with roughly 80 layoffs hitting the studio behind it this week.
That studio was Lightspeed LA , which got founded in late 2019/early 2020 by Steve Martin , former head of Rockstar San Diego . Based in Irvine, California, the studio set out to build a cyberpunk open world crime game featuring a female protagonist in a science-fiction reimagining of Tokyo, combining a large vertical city with the open world traversal, driving, and freeform gameplay associated with Rockstar's masterpieces.
To compete for talent against nearby studios like Blizzard, Riot, and Amazon during the notably worker-friendly hiring climate of 2020-2021 (fueled by the pandemic boom of the games industry), Lightspeed LA reportedly offered six-figure salaries and successfully recruited veteran developers from studios including Naughty Dog, Rockstar, and Blizzard.
Last Sentinel was unveiled to the world at The Game Awards 2023 , but updates dried up almost completely afterward. That changed last year, when the studio posted four development diaries on YouTube that, however, turned out to be mere hype reels . Schreier singles out a quote from voice actor Troy Baker , who worked as a performance director on the project: "This story is a middle finger to tropes. This takes everything you're expecting from a typical action adventure story and says, 'No, this one's different.'"
However, the studio still hadn't shown any sort of gameplay, which users immediately picked up on in the comments. The reason is simple: the studio couldn't quite deliver on its immensely ambitious promise . Lightspeed LA had put in years of work, but the team numbered in the hundreds, a far cry from the couple of thousand employees who worked on Red Dead Redemption 2. Sources who worked on the game described a lack of clear creative vision, slow decision-making, and a polarizing management style from founder Steve Martin. The project reportedly slipped multiple deadlines and ran over budget.
Earlier this year, the studio organized a playtest that reportedly generated near-unanimous negative feedback , with testers describing the game as simply not fun to play. That's when Tencent leadership issued an ultimatum: deliver a substantially improved build by July, or the project would not move forward.
Lightspeed LA brought in additional support, including creative director Todd Papy , known for his work on the God of War series, who joined the project in its final three months to help improve combat, missions, and other core systems. Despite this last-ditch attempt, the game was still nowhere near the graphical fidelity, polish, or overall quality bar expected of a genuine GTA rival, so Tencent decided "not to move forward" with the project and triggered the aforementioned layoffs. However, Tencent's public statement is a bit puzzling: the company said it plans "to shift the creative and development direction of Last Sentinel to meet player expectations," and that Lightspeed LA "remains open and continues to build games."
It's possible some version of the game will be released, or maybe Tencent is seeking another developer to help finish it better than Lightspeed LA could. Either way, it's another quiet disaster for a project that reportedly had a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars . It's also far from the first game to advertise a leadership with big credits only to fail, often before even making it to release.
Long story short: just because you hear a new studio is from the former developers of a massive hit, that doesn't mean their new project will be as good or even launch.
About the author : With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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