However, at the time of its release, the GTA clone set in Springfield, The Simpsons Hit & Run, was a huge success.

The Simpsons Hit & Run – a GTA-style knock-off that somehow turned out pretty good – was released in 2003 and was a major commercial success. Many people have fond memories of running wild in Springfield as the accident-prone Homer. However, the game never had a sequel. Turns out we’re getting almost four more games…

According to the interview clip on MinnMax’s YouTube channel, this is due to the publisher’s bizarre lack of interest.

“The Simpsons came back with an offer: five games for $X. It was a really good offer, but Vivendi [the publisher] said no,” recalls John Melchior, the game’s executive producer.

When asked by interviewer Ben Hanson what was the logic behind this decision, Melchior could only say, “I don’t know… for the [Hit & Run] sequel, there were airships, there were airplanes, there were a lot of things with The Simpsons could have played. It would have been a franchise, no doubt, in everybody’s mind.”

Sometimes, a company scrapes the jackpot because they don’t want to bet on the wrong horse. But what’s confusing is that more Hit & Runs wouldn’t have been really risky. One million copies of the game were sold by 2004 and three million by 2007. By all accounts, it was a commercial success. Assuming Melchior and his team could keep up the excellent work, a full series would have done well. His team was so confident that work on the sequel had already begun. “There was no question that, of course, we would do it”.

Darren Evenson, one of the game’s designers, also notes, “I remember the team just being shocked that we didn’t go ahead with the sequel.”

“Like John said, it wasn’t an easy decision. Of course, we would have done it. The stars [aligned] … and then we just felt like, huh, I guess not after all.”

“I remember the call,” Melchior says. “They said, ‘We decided to pass,’ and I said, ‘On what play?’ “Licensed from The Simpsons.” Steven Bersch, then president of Fox Interactive, was similarly perplexed, he recalls. “He said, ‘I don’t understand, I gave it to you on a silver platter, why don’t you say yes and make these games?’ It was a very bizarre decision, I will never understand.” Most people at the production level never got it.”

A game not getting a sequel isn’t exactly new. But it is rare that the studio itself does not know why. In general, money problems, bad management, and excessive ambitions can be pointed to. However, it really seems that Vivendi just didn’t care about the hen that lays the golden egg.

Source: YouTube