News: But who's really surprised? It last appeared in public in 2007.
Jake Kazdal has been employed by several different game companies in his career (even working with Sega on Rez and the unannounced Rez 2). His most recent game development gig has been with EA Los Angeles and this position has allowed him to tell the world that Steven Spielberg's Project LMNO has been canceled.
First announced back in 2007, LMNO was originally described by Newsweek's N'Gai Croal as "North by Northwest meets E.T. Чif E.T. were female, grown up and, um, hot."
The hot, female version of E.T. that would have been featured in LMNO would have been one half of a co-op duo that also would have included an ex-secret agent. The former g-man would have protected the alien, who would have assisted him in various ways depending on her mood.
But all of that is in the past as EA told
Joystiq that Kazdal is correct and LMNO is no more: "EA maintains its relationship with Steven Spielberg. EA has ceased development of LMNO. EA continually monitors development resources and adjusts resources as appropriate. No new title announcements."
Kazdal expanded on EA's comment by laying the game's cancellation at the feet of office politics: "I'm sure anybody you ask is gonna tell you something a little bit different, but it didn't end up ever taking off. There was some rival game stuff that may or may not have come out of EA that was basically the same thing minus some of the stuff we were doing. There was just a lot of politics."