Dean Hall and Improbable have scrapped Ion
Neither DayZ creator nor SpatialOS firm working on space survival game
At E3 2015, RocketWerkz founder Dean Hall announced he was working on a brand new game on Ion. In the two years since, little else has been released about the title and now it appears that the project has been cancelled.
An investigation by GamesIndustry.biz sister site Eurogamer reveals that neither the DayZ creator nor his partners are currently developing Ion, which was planned to be an "emergent narrative massively multiplayer online game" that would centre around colonising the universe.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Hall said: "We're not actively working on Ion, no. I am not involved in that, no. Nor is RocketWerkz studio in New Zealand."
The developer seemed quite optimistic about his ambitious project back in 2015, and even moved to London to collaborate with SpatialOS firm Improbable, using the company's technology to create a massive and persistent world.
However, he has since returned to his homeland and the partnership with Improbable seems to have ended.
"Ion was initially conceived as a project for co-development between Improbable and RocketWerkz," an Improbable spokesperson said. "A lot has changed since then. Dean Hall moved back to New Zealand from London, RocketWerkz has started work on a number of other games, and we have grown increasingly into a platform for games to be deployed on.
"We can definitely say that Improbable is not currently working on Ion. However, we have not previously commented on and cannot now comment on RocketWerkz' current or future plans... We currently have no plans to develop or release a game ourself."
RocketWerkz has since focused its efforts on virtual reality, releasing Out of Ammo for the HTC Vive. Dean Hall will be bringing a brand new, unannounced project to EGX Rezzed at the end of this month.