Volition's Zeus was a post-apocalyptic open-world game for PS4 and Xbox One

Volition had a post-apocalyptic open-world game in the works for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One before the developer scrapped the idea.

The title, codenamed Zeus, was set in a lawless, post-apocalyptic Rio and was a 'modern Western'. It starred a gunslinger who would explore the city, mostly on-foot.

While Zeus sounds like an interesting concept, Volition's senior producer Greg Donovan said development would have taken up too much time at the studio.

"Right or wrong, we know we could've made this game," he said during a Shacknews attended panel at GDC 2014. "But it would've taken too long. It wouldn't have been the responsible thing to do."

The studio, which was disappointed over its own decision to cancel the title, was still pleased with being able to to create vision tools quickly and "fail fast", said Donovan.

Volition is in the process of developing a "top secret" title using the experience gained with Zeus.

Interestingly, Donovan also revealed during his talk that Saints Row was originally titled Bling Bling. Thankfully, the name was changed.