The reason is anybody's guess. 2K Games, the Take Two division that was publishing "Snow," confirmed the cancellation, but declined to give any sort of reason. It might have been because of the controversy the game was bound to kick up. It might have been because the game's developer, FrogCity Software (along with fellow studio PopTop Software) was recently folded into Firaxis, a Take Two-owned development studio run by industry legend Sid Meier. It may have simply been that the game wasn't turning out to be any fun.

One theory, perhaps the most obvious one, is that 2K parent Take-Two Interactive may be pre-emptively sick of the headaches and PR nightmares that would be inevitable leading up to and following the game's release. Take-Two and its Rockstar publisher and developer subsidiaries have seen no shortage of controversy in recent years, and that controversy has frequently spread to encompass the games industry as a whole. Manhunt (PS2, Xbox, PC), State of Emergency (PS2, Xbox, PC) and several Grand Theft Auto games, particularly San Andreas, took plenty of flak in the mainstream press, and the long delayed schoolyard simulator Bully (PS2, Xbox) has taken pre-emptive criticism as well. Unlike Snow, all of those games were Rockstar-branded in some way. (Speaking of Rockstar, the company's San Diego studio recently released what is easily one of the least outrageous titles in the current Xbox 360 lineup, Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis.)

Such criticism isn't always bad for business; months after its release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2, Xbox, PC) shot back up to the top of the charts following the Hot Coffee mod controversy. However, a frequent criticism of Take-Two from financial analysts has been that the company is too reliant on Rockstar's megalithic GTA franchise, and the company seems to be making a concerted effort to broaden its portfolio. The company had a strong E3 showing, with Irrational's Bioshock (X360, PC) being one of E3's standout titles this year. It's always too bad when a game that is presumably far along in development gets cancelled--it could have been great!--but given the subject matter of this particular effort, Take-Two might have done the industry a PR favor.