Sleeping Dogs 2 Could Still Be Released Some Day, Says Designer

Last month, Sleeping Dogs, developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix, celebrated its 14th anniversary. Unfortunately, despite its ambitions, the game turned out to be a financial flop, so all plans for the series’ future were scrapped. However, according to one of the developers, this doesn’t mean we’ll never see a new Sleeping Dogs game in the future.

Recently, one of Sleeping Dogs' designers, Alastair Cornish, spoke to FRVR, where he shed some light on why the game's sequel never made it out, attributing it to United Front Games' enormous production costs. That said, Cornish also stated he wouldn’t rule out a potential release of Sleeping Dogs 2 down the road—even if that’s out of the question right now. The developer’s more detailed comments are available below:

“People love open world titles. I think it depends on what fidelity you’re going for. It depends on the market you’re targeting. It depends on what tools or techniques have helped bring down, if any, the cost of development.

Never say never in game dev, so I think it could happen, but you would need a bit of planetary alignment, right? You’d need really passionate people with a lot of different strings to their bow who are really tight about where they’re spending, really smart about where they’re spending, really honest with themselves about what’s working and what’s not.”

Despite the lack of a new Sleeping Dogs game, the franchise will return in one form or another. As is well known, a film adaptation of the game is currently in development, directed by Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes for Us, Nobody 2), with Simu Liu—a star of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—playing the lead role. Last month, the actor stated there has been some progress on the film, but so far, no specific details have been released.

As for the canceled Sleeping Dogs 2, among the known details, the game was planned to feature two protagonists with the option for co-op play, a new setting, procedurally generated quests, and even a companion app. However, due to the poor sales of the first game, it never progressed to full-scale development.