Products that the publisher thinks can earn a profit get published

Although this is true, inferring that the quality of the product is the primary factor in determining if a product is cancelled and/or not picked up is VERY naïve, especially in today’s climate. Making a shooter a success in today’s market takes far more than a good product, it takes tremendous brute force marketing, strong advertising and media support, strong relationship with retailers, basically things that very few publishers can pull off now (and Jowood clearly can’t do it). To make matters worse, a product like this may not see a profit until the 2nd or 3rd installment in a franchise, and there’s certainly no indication that whoever picks the title up has rights to more than one game (and there may be many other contractual limitations at play). Licensed properties are typically only profitable at the height of the property’s popularity, and only if it’s very popular (like LoTR, King Kong, Matrix, that sort of thing), a property like StarGate is a decent property, but only if you can leverage it for much more than one game, otherwise you’re likely sacrificing too much for it (Sega’s NFL loss is a good example of the dangers of investing in a property you don’t completely own). I’m not vouching for the quality of the product, I’ve seen no indication it’s particularly special, but assuming that it’s demise is due to a lack of quality shows a limited understanding of business, and an extreme lack of understanding about the game industry.