Rime no longer being published by Sony

Rime, a PS4 exclusive that was revealed back at Gamescom 2013, is no longer being published by Sony as developer Tequila Works has “reacquired” the rights.

The news came as a surprise and, yet, is no so surprising. It was a beautiful game that Sony was publishing and people were excited for, but on the other hand, we’ve heard practically nothing about it since 2013. The good news is that the game is not dead, and Tequila Works is “working hard to realize its aspirations for it.”

Following the announcement of Tequila Works reacquiring the rights to Rime, the dev took to Twitter to reassure fans that development is “going well and ending well”.

It’s unclear whether Tequila Works simply wanted the rights and ability to publish the game on more platforms, or if Sony simply were not impressed with the way the game was coming along. However in a Twitter post the team says any speculations that the rights were reacquired because of a lack of progress, are “untrue”. They also implied that lack of information on the game is more of a Sony issue, but that Tweet was deleted. The developer said it will share more about the breakdown between it and Sony soon.

What’s interesting however is that Microsoft initially passed on Rime, a decision Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, admittedly regrets. 

“Part of job is living with mistakes,” he said at the time. “Passed on Guitar Hero…I can list many misses regretfully. I try to focus on what we did ship.”

Rime appeared quite well along in its development when it was unveiled at Gamescom almost 3 years ago. People were impressed with the its Zelda-esque art-style and gameplay.

Nothing has been seen since then however, so maybe the game has undergone significant changes in those years. Tequila Works did confirm that the development team has grown significantly over the past few years, which does suggest a bigger game. Thankfully it shouldn’t be too long until we know more.

When do you think we will ever play Rime? And which consoles will it be on? Are you still interested in the game? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned to GameSkinny.