Facepalm: Tencent has reportedly canceled Last Sentinel, its ambitious cyberpunk open-world crime game that was supposed to rival Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto. The game had been in development at Tencent's Lightspeed LA studio for more than six years, with the Chinese tech giant reportedly investing more than $300 million in its development.
While Tencent disputes the cancellation rumors, Bloomberg News claims that the project is effectively dead, with around 80 developers reportedly laid off this week. Lightspeed LA confirmed the layoffs, citing a "shift (in) creative and development direction" following "extensive internal reviews and play-testing."
While the report of Last Sentinel's shutdown is disappointing, it is not entirely unexpected. The game was unveiled with a flashy teaser at The Game Awards in 2023, but Lightspeed LA failed to show any public gameplay even after more than six years of development. Additionally, internal testing in early 2026 reportedly received predominantly negative feedback, effectively sealing the game's fate.
The report claims that the project was plagued by several problems throughout its six-year development, including the studio's controversial leadership style, which insiders described as "polarizing." Industry veterans also believe that a team of only a few hundred developers was always going to struggle to build a worthy GTA competitor.
Despite the reported cancellation of Last Sentinel, Lightspeed LA remains operational, with the remaining staff being moved to an unannounced open-world project headed by creative director Todd Papy. The report adds that some of Last Sentinel's code and gameplay elements may be reused in the new game and other Tencent titles.
Lightspeed LA was established in 2020 under Tencent's Shenzhen-headquartered LightSpeed Studios. Led by Steve Martin, the former head of Rockstar San Diego, the studio was tasked with developing an open-world sandbox game featuring a female protagonist and centered on vehicle theft, similar to GTA, Saints Row, Cyberpunk 2077, and Watch Dogs 2.
Lightspeed LA is not the first Tencent-backed North American studio to run into trouble. Established by Tencent's TiMi Studio Group to create AAA games for Western audiences, TiMi Montreal closed earlier this year after five years of operation without ever releasing an original game. The Los Angeles-based Team Kaiju also shut down in 2023 after canceling an unannounced project.