Remember L.A. Noire? the game that puts you in the shoes of detective Cole Phelps investigating various cases set in 1940s Los Angeles. Sadly, its spiritual successor Whore of the Orient has been canceled.

Whore of the Orient was originally revealed back in 2012, after the release of L.A. Noire, and recently Producer Derek Proud said on Gameshug podcast that the lack of any development updates is because the game is canceled. He also outlined what could have been an outstanding game in a very interesting setting.

“Well Whore of the Orient was the spiritual successor to L.A. Noire. We were going to use that tech and we were going to create a game set in the 1930s, maybe 1940s, of Shanghai. Shanghai was the only place in the world you could go to in the 1930s and 1940s if you didn’t have a passport. So everybody who was running from something went to Shanghai. The whole city was run by a gangster called Big-Eared Du and it’s just the most fascinating time, place and setting. “And we were creating a game with all of that rich texture to it. And we fought for it. Brendan [McNamara – studio head], Alex Carlyle [design lead], Vicky Lord [general manager] and Naresh Hirani [project producer] all fought to keep that project alive. And I fought, too, it was something we were all passionate about. But in the end, that was the way it went.”

Unfortunately, I was personally looking forward to this game since I am a huge fan of L.A. Noire.