Acti: True Crime wouldn't have hit "the top" of its genre

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg has said one of the reasons True Crime: Hong Kong was canceled, was due to the firm's belief that the actioner would not reach "the top" of its genre.

Speaking in an interview with Joystiq, Hirshberg said the game's development budget and delays were, in a sense, also a contributing factor in its cancellation.

"The game had been delayed twice; the budget had been increased twice; and it had ballooned to a size where it was going to have to be a pretty incredible success in order to be worth the investment that it was taking to get it done," Hirshberg said of the United Front Games title.

Hirshberg goes on to say that when the game was greenlit by Activision, there was room in the marketplace for games with such a large scope as True Crime: Hong Kong. However, in the end, according to the CEO, the decision not to release the game came down to quality.

"Just a few years back, there was room for a lot more titles to find an audience of scale." he said. "The finished product was not going to be at the top of that genre.

"The only reason I'm hesitating [on offering an opinion] isn't due to lack of transparency, it's due to respect for the people who were making it who I think are incredibly talented and really brought their all and I don't want to say anything to disparage their efforts.

"That's a super-competitive genre with some of the world's best games in it."

True Crime: Hong Kong was announced during the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards, and was confirmed as canceled by Activision earlier this year during a financial call to investors.