Say Hello To My Little Friend?
Rumours of a remake of 2006’s Scarface: The World Is Yours have recently surfaced in the gaming world.
Vivendi Universal Games / Hardspace.sk8Miracle (autor de subida del archivo) on Wikimedia
This wildly popular action-adventure game was a commercial success back in the day, selling over 2 million copies across PlayStation, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows by May 2007 - only 7 months after the game’s release. It was even ported to Wii in June 2007, reaching Nintendo loyalists in the latter half of the year.
The game received high praise for its environment, emotional gravitas, and gameplay mechanics. It used an open-world environment, similar to the favored Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and San Andreas games, while accurately reflecting the film’s gritty feel. Superb voice acting, empire-building elements, and excellent targeting mechanics were also noted as being major pluses that contributed to the game’s success.
There were plans for a sequel to the game, but they were dropped in 2009. Recently, though, PC gamers noticed the game was posted as an upcoming release on gaming platforms Steam and Epic Games, sparking rumours of a potential re-release, remake, or remaster. However, the game has been pulled from both Epic and Steam’s libraries, with the game’s publisher, EC Digital, issuing an apology statement about the slip-up.
We’d love to share that statement with you, but as of October 23rd, the statement has also been removed. This is where things start to get hairy.
EC Digital
According to the gamer sleuths, this remake labelled the game’s publisher as EC Digital. The problem with this? There are no other games published by this company. In fact, there is no information anywhere about this company. A simple Google search will point you in the direction of several marketing agencies, but not much more than that. A website called Gematsu does have a profile page on a company called EC Digital, stating that it’s based in Hong Kong. Clicking on the official website link or social media pages, however, takes you to an error page or a YouTube channel with a 21-second video from 16 years ago.
This conundrum has left the gaming community with more questions than answers. The game’s original publisher was Vivendi Games, and it was developed by Radical Entertainment, neither of which exists anymore.
Before the remaster disappeared from stores, several folks noted that the game made use of mods by SilentPatch and Fusion Fix. According to the creator of SilentPatch, EC Digital had not confirmed the use of their software, despite including it in the game’s release copy.
So… Now What
With all this confusion, fans of the game are calling this re-release highly suspect, and we can’t blame them for thinking that. The consensus is that this potential remake is a masterclass in failed scam attempts.
What do you think? A remake of this classic game could be exciting, but ultimately seems improbable. If you’ve never played the game before and want to see what all the hype is about, it might be time to dust off that PS2.
