Video games, like any other type of media, is a business. When a game goes over budget or doesn’t live up to the standards of those working on it, a decision is made to just cancel and move on.
But, what happens when the community is really looking forward to these titles? Here’s eight examples of games we wish were never canceled.
Starcraft: Ghost
Starcraft: Ghost was set to be a spin-off of the highly popular Starcraft titles. Instead of making an RTS, the focus was on a class of soldier called a Ghost named Nova. It was set to be a stealthy action title that was first announced in 2002.
Though, after hearing that it had been shelved for other projects multiple times, most were expecting it to be canceled. The final word came in 2014 when it was officially announced that it was going to be scrapped.
Star Wars 1313
Star Wars 1313 was going to be a single player 3rd-person style of game, similar to Uncharted, but in the Star Wars universe.
Then, Disney bought LucasArts and promptly canned the project. Thanks, Disney.
Prey 2
The first Prey was stuck in development hell for a rather long time before seeing the light of day, so it’s rather unsurprising, yet still unfortunate, that its sequel shares the same issue.
After hopping between developers, Bethesda simply canceled it. Like many other action games released now, it was supposed to be an open world design and a new protagonist, though it will still have ties to the original storyline.
Hopefully, we’ll see its resurrection at some point in the future.
Fallout Online
Fallout Online was poised to be an MMO set in the Fallout universe. The development of this title was going to be very player focused, with player run towns, guild centers and other various areas that allowed players to interact.
However, legal issues began to crop up in 2007 when Bethesda purchased all rights to the Fallout series. They sent Interplay, the publisher of the title a notice to pay $30 million and $12 of the profits generated by the title to Bethesda for the license or forfeit rights to it. The legal issues continued and the game ended up being canceled as too much time and money was spent in a title that may not have even seen the light of day when everything was said and done.
Doom 4
No, not the remake. Doom 4 was slated to be the sequel in story to Doom 3. However, instead of legal or various other game politics issues, it was canceled because iD Software wasn’t satisfied with its development.
“We had explored a direction and got to a certain point and felt like that this wasn’t really capturing what we felt like was Doom” then director Kevin Cloud said of the original project.
Instead, they focused on the remake that we saw released last year. Honestly, I feel they went in the right direction. The remake is great and I’m very happy they went back to their roots with the fast paced fighting style.
Titan
Titan was the mysterious project that Blizzard had been working on for a few years during the peak of success for their MMO, World of Warcraft. After 7 years, they understood that it was only a matter of time before interest began to wain for their flagship title.
Excitement grew for Titan as millions of fans began to speculate as to what it was about, what kind of gameplay to expect and any other thing they could think of that they would enjoy seeing from a new Blizzard MMO.
Of course, we’ll never find out as it, like Starcraft: Ghost spent a lot of time being shelved for other projects before being canned altogether. It would have been fascinating to see Blizzard tackle a new IP that focused on being an MMO, especially now given the popularity of Overwatch
Scalebound
Scalebound was going to be an action game that allowed you to not only fight huge dragons like a modern themed Skyrim, but fight along side them as allies. Developed by Microsoft, it was focused on being an XBox One exclusive title. However, in Jan 2017, Microsoft officially canceled the title seemingly to focus on other titles.
Today, I have a difficult announcement to share that affects our fans, Microsoft Studios team and a valued partner. After careful deliberation, we have come to the decision to end production for Scalebound. This decision was not made lightly.
At Microsoft, we remain committed to making Xbox and Windows 10 the best places to play games, and look forward to bringing “Halo Wars 2”, “Crackdown 3”, “State of Decay 2”, “Sea of Thieves” and other great experiences to our fans.
Silent Hills
Silent Hills was one of the most anticipated video games of 2017. It had a legendary team working on its development including Guillermo Del Toro, Norman Reedus[/i], Junji Ito and last but not least, [a href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Kojima”]Hideo Kojima. These four artists are masters in their own industries and planned on making a the horror game of horror games.
So, when it was announced that it was canceled, it was a huge shock in the gaming industry and humbling experience. It let people know that even if a AAA title, with a team of some of the finest people working on it, a game can still never see the light of day.
If this game ever makes a return, we hope it brings this team with it. Otherwise it won’t feel the same.
