We've been treated to details on a "long-lost" Xbox exclusive courtesy of Axios and Totally Games, and it just so happens that cancelling the game was apparently Phil Spencer's first assignment on the Xbox gaming team.

The game was known as Knights of Decayden, but it had a working title of Archipelago, and it was being developed by the Star Wars: X-Wing team at Totally Games. The plan was for it to be released within a year of the original Xbox's launch, but it was officially cancelled in early 2002 and ultimately never ended up seeing the light of day.

In his interview with Axios, Totally Games founder Larry Holland advised that the game was "incredibly ambitious and sort of foolish in equal measures", and he was ultimately demoralised but not wholly surprised that it ended up getting cancelled. He revealed he agreed to a "very aggressive schedule" which proved overwhelming, and Microsoft's game managers at the time didn't have much experience trusting developers, which made them hard to please.

Phil Spencer reportedly told Axios recently that his first assignment on the Xbox gaming team was to "cancel Larry Holland's game", during a time when he was overseeing an operation called Studio X which is said to have focused on partnerships between Microsoft and outside game teams. Following Spencer's comment, the outlet did a little digging and found out the name of the game, and then contacted Holland who was happy to provide details.

A great little discovery, then! You can check out Holland's footage of the game at the top of this article.

Here's a description of the game courtesy of Axios:

"Players controlled a knight on a flying seahorse and engaged in ranged combat against other knights and monsters, lance-based slow-motion jousting and diving underwater to fight sea creatures."

Remember hearing anything about this back in the day? Let us know down in the comments below.

[source axios.com]