In 2012, developer Tim Dawson and a small team were tasked by Sega with building a prototype for a Golden Axe remake. Despite only being given two weeks and unreasonable conditions set by management, they managed to get a working prototype up and running that was ultimately unused. Well eight years later, Sega is releasing the prototype on Steam without credit or notice to any of the people that worked on it. Dawson posted a rant on Twitter about his experience working on the project:

this project was my personal nexus of nightmare hours, inept management, industry realisations and heroics achieved with a small team under unreasonable conditions, so it’s an odd feeling to see it surface eight years later without context, credits and with a joke title sequence pic.twitter.com/lBDVWegn3p

— Tim Dawson (@ironicaccount) October 15, 2020

The entire rant is worth reading and illustrates the disconnect between developers and management in the gaming industry. This would be like somebody asking you to build a replica of the Eiffel Tower in two days, telling you it sucks, and then eight years later using it to promote their theme park by featuring the World’s Worst Replica of the Eiffel Tower.

Source: Geekologie – Sega is releasing the prototype of a Golden Axe remake to the surprise of the developers