Alastair Cornish, a designer on Square Enix and United Front Games’ acclaimed Hong Kong-set 2012 open-world game “Sleeping Dogs” says he thinks a sequel could happen, but only if numerous factors fall into place.
The original game was a GTA-style open-world title, but set in the city of Hong Kong. You played as Wei Shen, an undercover cop in Hong Kong on a mission to take down a powerful criminal organisation – the Sun On Yee Triad.
It was acclaimed for its story, characters, city recreation and combat elements, but developer United Front Games has shuttered, so talk of sequels or a remake have been scuttled.
Now, speaking with FRVR, Cornish says a sequel is possible but would depend on a number of factors:
“People love open world titles. I think it depends [on] what fidelity you’re going for. It depends [on] the market you’re targeting. It depends on what tools or techniques have helped bring down, if any, the cost of development. Never say never in game dev.
I think it could happen, but you would need a bit of planetary alignment, right? You’d need really passionate people with a lot of different strings to their bow who are really tight about where they’re spending, really smart about where they’re spending, really honest with themselves about what’s working and what’s not.
Sometimes [with] open-world games, why is it even an open-world game? You have games that feel like there are too many cookie-cutter activities, too many whatever collectathons, and they’ve made a bloated world [just] to have a bloated world. I think weve got over that now. I think you get more tightly focused worlds now. I think the whole chasing the bigger map thing now has thankfully died”
A sequel was planned shortly after the first came out, but then was quickly cancelled in early 2013. For years, Asian action legend Donnie Yen tried to get a film adaptation going with him starring, but that collapsed in 2024.
More recently, “Shang-Chi” actor Simu Liu said he’s “working with the rights holders to bring Sleeping Dogs to the big screen,” with a draft film script completed and Indonesian filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto (“The Night Comes For Us,” “Nobody 2”) set as director earlier this year.
