According to Nicolas Doucet, producer and creative director at Sony Computer Entertainment London, neither title has been canceled, necessarily, just "put to one side." He tells Gamekult (via Gamespot), that a faint glimmer of hope may still exist.

"Much work had been done," Doucet says, estimating that those games were at about the halfway mark in their development cycles. "The studio just wanted to focus on its strengths, EyeToy and SingStar. Given the potential of EyePet, priorities have been changed, but the other projects aren't dead yet."

Doucet says the decision by Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida has "benefited everyone."

Sony London reveals new IP; Getaway 3, Eight Days 'not abandoned' [GameSpot]

It doesn't look like we'll ever see Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's Eight Days. The project was apparently scrapped, with SCE Worldwide Studios bossman Shuhei Yoshida instead dedicating resources to projects like the recently announced EyePet. Fiscally, probably not a horrible idea, as Eight Days may have ultimately been a big-budget third-person shooter, something we're not exactly lacking in these days.

Still, this recently uploaded look at Eight Days' animation tests, via our good friends at NeoGAF make us a little misty-eyed. Poor thing never had a chance... and it was so nicely animated, too. Here's to hoping this cover system tech can be put to use elsewhere.

"I think it is fair to say that we do not comment on rumour and speculation, especially about games that have never been announced," said SCEE corporate PR manager Nick Caplin.

Caplin did tell us, though, some detail behind why Eight Days and Getaway 3 were scrapped, and why we oughtn't worry about SCEE:

"Regarding 8 Days and The Getaway, we review the progress and viability of games on a regular basis taking into account feedback from within WWS [worldwide studios] and all the RHQs [regional headquarters], and at our latest review, felt that the budget and resources required to complete these games could be more beneficial elsewhere."

Moreover, Caplin said there's no trouble on the European front. "We are still dedicated to our first-party studios and are very excited about the fantastic exclusive titles coming this year, such as LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, as well as some very exciting titles coming in the near future."

" Please note that LBP, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Killzone 2 are all from European studios," said Caplin.

Yoshida tells Develop that the game known formerly as Eight Days was nixed, in part, because it was lacking in online capabilities. And that's important.

The Phil Harrison replacement said that Sony "looked at how it fit in the portfolio and where it fit as a production" when deciding what to keep and what to cut, pointing out that resources don't exactly meet expectations. Regardless of the reasoning, the cancellation of the London Studios project was a huge blow to gamers and us personally at Kotaku. Just kidding! We almost forgot it was ever shown!

Lack of online influenced Sony decision to cancel Eight Days [Develop]

"This decision was made following an internal review of all games and it was deemed that with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resource should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion.

You heard them folks - they have so many strong titles coming out that they can afford to just toss a couple into the rubbish bin to keep the games flowing. Good riddance I say. I never understood why they'd try to continue the Getaway series after the heaping helping of crap that was Black Monday anyway.

Sony stops work on Eight Days and The Getaway [GI]