Trivia / Sleeping Dogs (2012)

• Development Gag: The previous mole against the Sun On Yee, Charlie Ho, is most likely the original protagonist when it was True Crime: Hong Kong.
• Divorced Installment: As mentioned on the main page, at one point it was supposed to a third, Dolled-Up Installment of the True Crime series after beginning life as a game called Black Lotus. However Activision had little faith in the project and cancelled it, eventually it was bought by Square-Enix. Incidentally, the game's protagonist Nick Kang was supposed to make a cameo.
• Stillborn Franchise: Between Triad Wars (a Spiritual Successor) being cancelled, and the direct sequel still being under development when United Front Games shut its doors, it seems this sleeping dog's been sent to the farm. The Chinese-made movie adaptation is still filming though.
• The Other Darrin: Even though Vincent, Johnny Ratface, Sam "Dogeyes" Lin and Ponytail are resurrected for the Nightmare in North Point DLC, their voice actors from the main game, Osric Chau^note Vincent, Vic Chao^note Ratface and Ron Yuan^note Dogeyes and Ponytail, did not return to voice them. Instead, they are voiced by the VA's for the generic triads and pedestrians.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The game was originally pitched as Black Lotus and featured a female protagonist. Activision objected to the presence of a female protagonist for marketing reasons, and demanded the team use a male protagonist and the True Crime brand for mainstream appeal.
  • The would-be sequel had a rather ambitious scope, featuring such things as a second playable character, branching narratives and the ability to affect the gameworld via either a mobile app as well as through Player Data Sharing.