Recently an interview with Stargate executive producer Brad Wright hit fan website GateWorld in which Mr Wright lamented the fact that the planned Stargate Worlds MMO wasn’t completed yet. When asked regarding the future of the title he said “we don’t know”, saying that “if it were going to be happening it should be happening now”. Unfortunately many sites took this as insinuation (or in some cases outright confirmation) that the game was dead.

The game’s senior marketing manager Kevin Ballantine was quickly clued into the story and spoke with its author. Ballantine gave him a detailed response to the article, which the GateWorld writer then declined to publish. Today Mr. Ballantine has issued a statement that while Brad Wright is in fact an important part of the game development, being one of the key players of the entire franchise he had unfortunately not been updated on the game’s progress before the interview. The studio has felt the crunch of the economic downturn, but they assure the public that they are getting enough money from investors to keep the development team at their desks seven days a week. He also reports that they’re currently negotiating deals to keep the funding coming.

Unfortunately Brad Wright is correct in his statement that now is the optimal time to have the game be on the shelves. The first spin-off series, Stargate Atlantis has recently concluded it’s televised run and though ephemeral wisps of news are circulating regarding the new spin-off, Stargate Universe, it’s a long ways from being on the air and in the mean time prospective players might be getting themselves entrenched into existing MMOs or simply moving on to other franchises.