In May 1996, Sega displayed a playable demo of "X-treme" at E3 1996, and displayed a version of Coffin's engine. By this time, team morale had dropped and turnover was high. Wallis claims that he fired an artist for poor performance and for disrupting the team. By August, Coffin had contracted severe pneumonia. Wallis praised Coffin's effort, calling him a "human dynamo", but said that Coffin had "worked himself into the ground" and that the team had no chance of meeting its deadline without him. Around the same time, Senn became so ill that he was told he had six months to live, though he survived. With both teams crippled, and only two months left before the deadline, Wallis canceled the game.