NetDevil believed in Auto Assault from the start, and with any game that you’ve invested so much time into, it is very sad to see it discontinued. The development of every title is a learning experience and there’s little question that AA took a number of risks in making a truly unique game.

A few months back, we had some negotiations with NCsoft about the property and felt that our collective experience and success self-publishing Jumpgate would translate well. We also believed that as a small publisher/developer we would find cost efficiencies and higher ROI than firms with a larger infrastructure. In the end, we could not work out a deal with NCsoft that would have given us the ability to run the game the way we felt we needed to make it great.

The team at NetDevil still fully supports its work on Auto Assault and we’ve received a great deal of positive feedback from a diverse fan base. We have also enjoyed a successful, long term relationship with NCsoft, and hope we have the opportunity to work with them in the future. We’ve folded a lot of the lessons we learned from the game back into the studio, and we are in a fortunate position where we have additional resources to complete development work on very bright, future projects, namely: Jumpgate: Evolution; Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction; and LEGO Universe.

As for the current status of Auto Assault, NCsoft owns 100% of the Auto Assault IP, and anyone interested in discussing the reasons behind its closure or future licensing should talk to them directly. NetDevil, however, still retains the source code to Auto Assault, and we are always open to business partners wanting to work with us on seeing the vision of a fast-paced vehicle combat MMO continue.