Blizzard cancelling its seven-years-coming MMO Titan reminded us all that game development can be a messy business. Countless hours lost and dollars wasted. But worst of all, we never get to play the game!
It's a sad fact of life - game cancellations are part of the business, and game publishers are going to make that tough call themselves, regardless of how many emails you send or how many sobbing voicemails are left at their offices. Titan isn't the only heartbreaking game cancellation to rock the gaming world - below are 15 more memorable cancelled games we'll never get to play:
LMNO
Getting one of Hollywood’s greatest film producers onboard with a video game is a pretty big deal, which is why LMNO was so high on so many “Most Anticipated Games” lists. Alas, even with the weight of Steven Spielberg behind the project, EA cancelled the game in late 2009. LMNO was rumored to bring advanced AI to the game’s characters.
inSane
Another game tied to Hollywood’s elite, Guillermo del Toro was tapped to work with Volition on this survival horror game. Unfortunately now-defunct publisher THQ scrapped their involvement only a year and a half later. At the announcement of the game, the 2010 Spike VGAs, del Toro said, “"With this new series of video games, I want to take players to a place they have never seen before.” It seems likely that many of InSane's ideas will make their way into Silient Hills, given Del Toro's heavy involvement in the horror sequel.
Star Wars 1313
We could have been flying around a Galaxy Far, Far Away as Boba Fett, the famed Bounty Hunter. Instead, the Evil Empire (Disney, not the Yankees) went and shut down LucasArts. After claiming that another studio may eventually step in and take over development of the game, Disney let the trademark on Star Wars 1313 expire. Maybe some day we'll get a polished M-rated Star Wars action-adventure, but not any time soon.
Streets of Rage
Ruffian Games, the folks behind Crackdown, was at one point working on a remake of the classic Sega beat-em-up from the early 90s. A video of a prototype was leaked in 2012 and showed some nods to the classic game, albeit in a 3D world. With no reason given on why the project was cancelled before it was even announced, fans of the classic series gave a collective yelp when they saw what might have been.
B.C.
Anytime you hear Peter Molyneux say he’s not sure when a game will release because it’s too “ambitious” and the development team’s standards are high, you know the game will never see the light of day. Molyneux exaggerates a bit, sure, but I think we were all looking forward to prehistoric battles and advanced AI. It was cancelled 10 years ago, and it still stings
Six Days in Fallujah
We don’t know what Konami had in store for us with this tactical shooter, but with actual soldiers providing guidance on how insurgent tactics were used, it’s a toss up whether the choice to cancel was a good one or not. The game was called a “survival horror,” but only in the sense that we were going to be exposed to the horror of war. Real war. Perhaps Konami realized the gaming public wasn't ready for those realities.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned
Disney strikes again, this time sinking the pirate RPG being worked on by Propaganda Games. Instead, Propaganda went on to release the mediocre TRON: Revolution rather than a swashbuckling pirate adventure. We’d all rather have taken our chances with a no-name pirate, particularly after the positive reception early builds if the game were getting
Eight Days
Reminiscent of a buddy action flick, Eight Days was originally shown as a tech demo for the PS3. After announcing it as an actual title in 2006, just two years later it was cancelled, with a lack of multiplayer cited as one potential liability. A cover shooter, the game took place over (you guessed it) eight days, and saw the duo trekking across state lines, each with their own motives. Although the game was technically only “put on hold,” it's now been six years. It's probably safe to let this one go and put it in the ground for good.
The Lord of the Rings: The White Council
With the release of the excellent Tolkien-inspired game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, it’s important to remember that there was once another promising Lord of the Rings action-RPGin development. EA announce The White Council and it was set to be an open world, with characters behavior modeled by advanced AI. The project was shaping up to be an EA-published Skyrim... set in Middle-Earth. Put on hold “indefinitely” in 2007, there’s virtually zero chance this game ever rises from the ashes of Mount Doom
This is Vegas
Though the website still lists this as “Coming Soon,” the odds are higher you'll hit a 00 Roulette jackpot than This is Vegas ever seeing the light of day. With frat-house like gameplay, gambling, fighting, and partying, there were some who were excited for the game to release. Fans of old console games like Caesar’s Palace or Vegas Stakes were curious how it would handle gambling, while others were excited for the brawling. Regardless, Midway went bust and after acquiring the title, sealing its fate.
Dead Phoenix
Part of the famed “Capcom Five,” rail-shooter Dead Pheonix was compared to Panzer Dragoon, or a “grown up” version of Kid Icarus. As a winged man, the gameplay showed battles against large armies and even larger boss-type enemies. The island where the game was set was said to be “ever changing,” and trailers showed different areas throughout the world. Alas, it was cancelled in 2003.
Fallout Online
Making a game set in the Fallout Universe without making any references to previous games is difficult, but that’s what Bethesda expected of developer Masthead Studios and Interplay Entertainment with Fallout Online. After a messy legal battle, Bethesda and Masthead Studios, along with Interplay, reached a settlement and the MMO was cancelled. Damn.
Starcraft Ghost
Stepping away from their RTS roots, Blizzard’s stealth/sniper action game was announced in 2002 and cancelled in early 2006. Less than a year later murmurs of Blizzard’s other doomed game, Project Titan, began to emerge. Still, despite no information regarding Ghost in years, Blizzard isn't using the word “cancelled.” Instead, the game is euphamistically considered to be on “indefinite hold.”
Super Mario Spikers
Last week it was revealed that there was almost a Mario game that combined volleyball and wrestling. For those who remember Super Spike V’Ball on the NES fondly, a Mario-themed volleyball game would have been welcomed with open arms. Imagine Yoshi setting Princess Peach to spike it right in Luigi’s face. It would inevitably lead to a rumble - because nobody does Luigi like that. Unfortunately the project would never come to be.
Dirty Harry
At first glance, you’d think that a licensed follow-up to the 1971 Clint Eastwood film of the same name would be dreadful. But with Eastwood lending creative input, his likeness, and his voice to the project, Dirty Harry suddenly had our attention. Despite trailers using Eastwood’s voice, including the famous, “Do I feel Lucky?” line, Eastwood oddly never actually recorded anything new for the game - all audio in the trailers was reused from the film. Details are scant, but we at least know it was set to be a GTA-style open world game before being cancelled
Despite the frequency of game cancellations, it still hurts. Games are cancelled for a reason - either the project wasn't coming together as envisioned, or would cost too much money to complete, or just plain wasn't fun. But it's still hard to not pine for could have been.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/30/15-of-the-most-heartbreaking-game-cancellations
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