'Sony-inspired' hack forces game cancellation

The game put players in control of Kim Jong-un

A hack attack "inspired" by the recent attack on Sony has led a developer to cancel creation of a game featuring Kim Jong-un.

Called Glorious Leader! the side-scrolling shooter involved the North Korean leader taking on the US army.

Now Money Horse Games has shut down development after hackers destroyed game data files.

Money Horse apologised to backers and said it was sorry it could not complete the game.

Glorious Leader first appeared on the Kickstarter website in December seeking $55,000 (£36,500) to make the retro-styled title. The game involved controlling the country's leader through a series of challenges that saw him taking on US soldiers, drones, helicopters and ships.

Development has now been halted and the game cancelled thanks to the hack attack that, said Money Horse," was inspired by the larger attack on Sony". It said it was sure that the attack was the work of "amateurs" and not politically motivated like the the Guardians of Peace group that said it carried out the Sony hack.

"The hackers destroyed data pertaining to Glorious Leader! and other projects we had in development and locked us out of our own computers and website," wrote the developers in an update. It added that no user data went astray in the attack.

The firm added that other hackers had targeted it before now because of the game's subject matter.

"Between the hacking and other threats, we think it is time to re-evaluate our commitment to Glorious Leader!," the company said.

The hack, the lost data and a lull in funding combined to bring about the demise of the project, it said.