Gex 4

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Gex 4 is a cancelled game that would have served as the fourth entry in the Gex series. It was being developed for 6th generation consoles, but was quietly cancelled by Eidos Interactive due to lack of interest in the project.

History

Production on Gex 4 began in late 2001. However, by early 2002, the game would end up being cancelled. There were a few key reasons for the game's cancellation. Perhaps the biggest being Glenn Schofield, who would've been director over the project, leaving Crystal Dynamics to join Electronic Arts in March 2002. He would work on the movie tie-in game, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and form what would eventually become Visceral Games. Other developers at Crystal Dynamics began leaving the company around this time as well to join other companies such as Naughty Dog and Activision. Due to the turnovers happening internally at Crystal Dynamics, Eidos would quickly lose interest in continuing the project. As a result, the game never left the pre-production phase and a prototype or demo of the game is very unlikely to exist. Instead, Eidos and Crystal decided to push forward a new platforming IP in Gex 4's place. This game would eventually turn into Whiplash.

As of now, the only surviving remnants of this project are three pieces of concept art from Freddie Lee's portfolio. He was a Senior Environmental Artist for Crystal Dynamics at the time. In a recent interview with the artist, he mentioned how he was courted back to Crystal Dynamics with the prospects of working on Gex 4 with friends and colleagues. However, due to previously mentioned reasons, he would instead work on Whiplash.

Gex 4's Influence over Whiplash

As mentioned above, while Gex 4 was cancelled, the spirit of the game would live on in the form of another game called Whiplash. Whiplash was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and featured character designs, gameplay, concept art, and a style of humor reminiscent of the Gex series. This was supported by the fact that some of the developers behind this game were also key members of the Gex 3 development team. These notable developers include Scott Anderson, Jeremy Bredow, and Spencer Hale. Two of the main composers from Gex 3, Jim Hedges and Burke Trieschmann, contributed to Whiplash's sound design as well. Gex 3 QA testers, Christopher Bruno and Billy Mitchell, would also return to do testing for Whiplash, with Bruno being the game's Test Manager. Marketing for both games was handled by Chip Blundell and Paul Baldwin, and Robert K. Dyer and Rita Fovenyessy are thanked in the credits for both games. Freddie Lee would confirm this theory in a recent interview. Two years prior to Whiplash's release in 2001, another game by the name of Mad Dash Racing was released on the original Xbox. These same developers worked on this project as well, and Gex even makes an appearance in the game as a guest character. Billy Mitchell was also the game's Test Manager. This further implies Gex's influence on the development of Whiplash.

Gallery

'Gex 4' concept art done by Freddie Lee, Environment Concept Artist for Crystal Dynamics.

Possible Gex 4 concept art found in Scott Anderson's portfolio.

Trivia

• Strangely, "Gex 4" was a potential working title for Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko.^{[citation needed]}

See Also

• List of potential series revivals