Jeff Minter fans and raver-gamers alike would likely be wandering what on earth has happened to Unity, the forthcoming GameCube shooter inspired by Minter’s VLM Synthesizer.

TVG recently tried to contact Minter and Lionhead to get an update on the title but was met with a wall of silence, as today the reason behind that became unfortunately apparent.

In a statement released to the press, Lionhead and Jeff Minter have confirmed the cancellation of the title, dubbing it as an “ambitious and experimental project” that sadly won’t come to fruition.

It appears that the ill-fated decision to create the title on the GameCube appears to be one of the main issues, with the amount of time still needed to complete it and its likely release date always putting the final product in question.

Commenting on the decision to halt work on Unity, Peter Molyneux said, “Everyone at Lionhead has the utmost respect and admiration for Jeff’s unique talents. However, we’ve both been in the industry a long time and it was becoming increasingly apparent to us that we would not be able to finish Unity in an acceptable time frame. On a personal level, I have very much enjoyed working with Jeff.”

Jeff Minter responded, “Everyone at Lionhead has been incredibly supportive and the decision to stop working on Unity has been a difficult one for us. But being realistic, I felt it was better for everyone concerned that we cease work on Unity. I’d like to thank Lionhead for all their help and support over the past two years.”