It now appears that Splash Damage and Transformers fans could have been victims of foul play.
Yesterday, we reported on the sudden cancellation of Transformers Reactivate, an original new Transformers game developed by Splash Damage. This game was announced in 2022’s The Game Awards. They also promised an open beta of the game would be available in 2023, but that never came to pass. There was some speculation on whether this cancellation had to do with Hasbro, as a fan opined that the franchise is entering its ‘dark age.’ But there may be a different party to blame.
TFW2005 forum member SilverOptimus made this post in relation to the news:
“Sad ending to what essentially started as a scam. LeYou only wanted Hasbro’s property license so that they can have a glowing portfolio to increase the value when selling the company to Tencent.
Alexa Xu took that money and walked out.
But the saddest part is that both LeYou and Splash Damage had to layoff employees due to cutting the project midway.
Mad props to that one investigative journalist (Josh Ye) who uncovered the shady nature of this game since the very beginning.”
SilverOptimus also linked to a separate thread based on a South China Morning Post report from 2021. To sum, the report alleges that LeYou, who owned Splash Damage since 2016, and also had various investments in SNK, Certain Affinity, and the new Telltale Games, wasn’t really interested in video games except for making money. When the company got bought out by Tencent, LeYou CEO Alex Xu and other high level executives left, presumably taking big payouts along the way.
If these allegations are true, it would be an unfair cruelty to Splash Damage, who are well known to be a capable studio but have been struggling to find their place in the industry for years. The company almost didn’t survive the failure of its entry into live service, Dirty Bomb, and they just had layoffs last year from not having new games released for too long.
As noted by TFHypeGuy on Twitter, much like his beloved CG animated movie Transformers One, Transformers Reactivate and the people behind it were given a raw deal. The rumors collected about the title have it that it had been in development since 2017 and switched developers at least twice. Transformers comic book scribe Simon Furman also emerged to reveal that he had been helping build the story and lore of the game, and he was also saddened by its cancellation.
We will have to wait and see if Hasbro decides to make an official comment on all these rumors and speculation, but as it stands, outside of any leaked gameplay, Transformers Reactivate’s most tangible legacy will be the toys that they made for it in 2020.
We wish the best for all the former and exiting members of Splash Damage and hope that they can find placement back in the video game industry.
