Before THQ shuttered Juice Games, the studio riches888pg was working on a H.A.W.X.-esque game called Stormbirds. A Juice artist put out and then pulled back some pics and a video, but cat’s outta the bag now.
The team working on this were “made redundant” (i.e., fired) on jinda44 Dec. 1 because THQ made the decision Stormbirds was “too high risk,” according to artist Greg Calvert in a post on his personal blog (the e19 post is now taken down, the quote comes from Shacknews, which saw it.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIWlxZ-PI50
Looking at the visual assets, the game seems to be set in a post-apocalyptic future at least partly employing Paris and a desert oilfield as settings. And from the cinematic, my guess is the Stormbirds were some rogue/mercenary group of flyboys blowing up the huge, lumbering squadrons of whatever corrupt government is in charge at that time.
No game action in the trailer, but it is an impressive CGI render. Stormbirds was being developed for the PS3 and the 360 as well as the PC. ShackNews has more still images with its post. Pity, this thing looked like fun, but then, don’t they all at this stage of creation?
Unnanounced, Cancelled THQ Air Combat Game Revealed in Slick Trailer [ShackNews via Blue’s News]