Trivia / 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

• Acclaimed Flop: Unlike 50 Cent's previous game, Bulletproof, which got tons of negative reviews, this one was actually decently received. But sadly only sold about 50,000 copies, which lead to Swordfish Studios going bankrupt. This was not helped by the critical backlash against 50 Cent that developed in the years between Bulletproof and Blood on the Sand, with his studio album the same year, Before I Self Destruct, flopping in the charts.
• Channel Hop: It was originally to be published by Vivendi Games, but was cancelled due to their merger with Activision. Shortly after, THQ picked up the rights.
• Creator Killer: The underwhelming sales for this led to Swordfish Studios going under a year after release, later absorbed by Codemasters as Codemasters Birmingham.
• No Export for You: The game did not see a German-market release due to fears that its portrayal of violence would cause it to be indexed by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Downplayed example. The game was by no means meant for children (and is rated M), but 50's then-seven-year old son reportedly played development builds of his father's game and was responsible for having helicopters implemented at his insistence.
• Throw It In!: Enemy helicopters were added to the game late in development after 50's son requested them.
• Troubled Production: Hoo boy. The game started life as a tie-in for a TV series based on Robert Ludlum's Covert-One novels but the show was scrapped and so was the game's original incarnation, which was also set in a Middle Eastern locale. Vivendi had the licence to make games based on Fiddy's likeness and stage persona, and offered Swordfish to develop a sequel to Bulletproof, much to the shock of the team. Not wanting to leave the Covert-One work to waste, they retooled the project into an absurd, over-the-top romp of a rapper and his posse staging a concert in a war zone of all places, fighting his way through just to get a diamond-encrusted skull he was promised as compensation. Even with the shift in tone in place, Swordfish had to muddle through with development, particularly when 50 Cent's son insisted on helicopter sequences and the rapper himself wanting to have vehicle chases thrown in, something which Swordfish had to implement despite it being a total headache to code and incorporate. Vivendi then merged with Activision, and the game was left in limbo again when it was not included in the IPs Activision acquired during the merger. THQ finally picked up the rights to the game, with Swordfish folding around that time.
• What Could Have Been: As mentioned above, Swordfish was originally tasked to develop a tie-in game based on an unrelated television series based on a series of political thriller novels, but that got scrapped when the show was prematurely shelved.