Unnamed RF:G Sequel
Project White was the internal code name for a canceled Red Faction series action video game developed by Fishlabs and pitched to rights holder Plaion in late 2023. The game would have been a direct sequel to 2009's Red Faction: Guerrilla. No official announcement of the project has ever been made. The potential game was ultimately cancelled in November 2023 following an internal vote.[1]
Overview
Development and Cancellation
Since around 2021, Fishlabs had been working on a non-Red Faction related original title under the internal name Project Black. In April 2023, Fishlabs announced that they had received public funding from the German government for Project Black. Just a few months later however, in September 2023, internal restructuring led to the cancellation of Project Black and layoffs of some Fishlabs staff. Following Project Black's cancellation, some of its developers shifted focus to an internal project referred to as Project White, and, crucially, retained the public funding they had received.
Initially, Project White was an exploratory project which considered utilizing intellectual property such as Lord of the Rings, or even Chorus - Fishlabs' earlier title. Eventually, the team settled on pitching a project using the Red Faction IP, which was owned by Plaion - parent of the recently shuttered Deep Silver Volition, the Red Faction series' original developer.
Over time, the Project White team worked on a visual prototype to showcase their plan for the game, using Unreal Engine 5. Reporting suggests that the most elaborate pitch by Fishlabs to Plaion was in mid November 2023, and involved a screening of the visual prototype as well as a cosplay demonstration, with Fishlabs team members posing as characters from the game, including a group of Red Faction resistance fighters hacking a presentation being given by a "sinister corporate agent".
Project White was cancelled during the week of November 20, 2023 following an internal vote on the future of the Red Faction-based project. The vote was split 50-50, which resulted in its cancellation. Shortly after, Fishlabs was hit by mass layoffs enacted as part of larger restructuring efforts by parent company Embracer Group.[2]