The world of game development is: fleeting, stressful and full of difficulties. Poor management or lack of funding can: ruins a game before it even hits store shelves. This can be a death knell for developers, and it is unfortunately, surprisingly common. In fact, the list of game developers who are now defunct goes on and on.
The good news here is that for every developer who gets shut down, another gets a chance at life. At least, canceled matches are opportunities to learn, and to do it differently next time. These are cautionary tales: PS4 games that got the ax before they were ever released.
10/10 Rainbow 6 Patriots
Rainbow 6 Patriots would become an FPS in the Rainbow 6 series. The game’s announcement cancellation came alongside announcing the now quite popular Rainbow 6 siege.
Patriots would have been focused on storytelling for single player, with domestic terrorists as enemies and ask interesting moral questions along the way. Looks like the heavy handed style of storytelling creatively difficult. Maybe Ubisoft thought it would be controversial. Whatever the case, creative team members on Patriots were cycled in and out repeatedly. The technology became obsolete as development continued, and the game was eventually canceled in 2014.
9/10 Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun
dead sun would be the sixth entry in the critically acclaimed legacy of Cain series. These action adventure games revolve around the eponymous vampire and his adventures in a gothic fantasy world. They are best known for their high level stories.
Dead Sun was canceled before it even got an announcement. To this day it remains a mysterious game best known for unofficial leaks. Eidos originally published the LoK games, but they were bought by Square Enix in 2009. Square found a developer to work on Dead Sun, which was planned as a PS4 launch title. As for why they canceled it, we can only speculate. George Kelion, a publicist for Square Enix Europe, shared some information about NeoGAF, saying: “In the end, LoK: Dead Sun just wasn’t the right game, at the right time”.
8/10 Whore of the East
This game with a shocking title was developed by KMM Interactive. KMM consisted largely of former employees of team bondi, who developed the critically acclaimed game LA Noir. Their second game would have used the same face scanning technology used in L.A. Noire.
A lot of people were interested in the game, and it should have been is set in Shanghai in 1936. However, there was a certain recoil around the title, which is outdated and offensive. Also, Team Bondi was surrounded by rumors of unethical overtime and snack time during the development of LA Noire. As for the fate of their follow-up match, it was canceled in 2016 for unclear reasons, four long years after the first announcement.
7/10 Gnomageddon
Gnomageddon was going to be a free-to-play multiplayer game starring squads of sentient garden gnomes. It’s sad that the game has been canceled; it is a very nice concept that looked like cute and promising.
Gnomageddon was developed by one of the two teams of Sony San Diego (or Sony SD). Having previously pumped sports games, the studio eventually got a chance to work on more original projects. The bigger team started working on a game called Killstrainthe other Gnomageddon. Killstrain was released, it is flopped, and Sony made the brutal decision to the smaller branch of Sony SD . to close before they could release Gnomageddon. And that’s a shame, because unlike Killstrain, it looks like it could have been a success.
6/10 Tekken X Street Fighter
In 2012, Capcom released: Street Fighter X Tekkena fighting game with the Street Fighter Engine and bringing together characters from both franchises. At the time, Bandai Namco announced that they were developing the opposite game, Bringing Street Fighter characters into the more technical Tekken engine. Unfortunately it seems to be their game now Tekken X Street Fighter will never see the light of day.
For unclear reasons, the development of Tekken X Street Fighter just stopped. In the time since the announcement, Street Fighter V and Tekken 7 have both been released. As Tekken 7 has been fairly successful and the Tekken X Street Fighter development cycle has taken so long, most agree that the game is in a state of limbo.
5/10 Ghost Recon Frontline
The Ghost Recon games are known for their tactical stealth to play. That’s why when Ubisoft announced a new Ghost Recon battle royale match did not go well. Easy said, it just wasn’t what Ghost Recon fans wanted to see.
The first announcement of Ghost Recon: Frontline on Youtube was bombarded with dislikes. Now the game seems to be on hold indefinitely. no official reason: was given for the delay of Frontline, but it seems to be directly related to the recoil. In fact, YouTube has since removed visible dislikes from all of his videos. As some commentators have humorously pointed out, “without dislikes we are led to believe that this game will be a hit”.
4/10 EverQuest Next
EverQuest Next was initially promoted as “the greatest sandbox-style MMO ever designed”. It was announced by Sony online entertainmentwhat was later Daybreak Game Company. While Daybreak seemed excited about their ambitious sequel to an old-school MMO, it wouldn’t be long before the project ground to a halt.
The game was officially cancelled in 2016 for fear it would not live up to the standards of the series. EverQuest Next toted big, ambitious functions Like it fully destructible environments and radiant AI, which probably added to the frustration of the design process. Developers often fall into the trap of adding more to their games without thinking about how the new features will fit into the overall experience.
3/10 Project Rap Rabbit
Project Rap Rabbit could have been great if it weren’t for that poorly conceptualized Kickstarter campaign. The campaign was launched with a lofty goal of: over $1 million. It had a short trailer with a (very) early concept for a new “rhythm-action” game. The small development team was even led by some of the original creators of PaRappa the Rapper.
The Kickstarter failed for a few reasons. The team essentially presented a storyboard. There was no real gameplay, and everything was subject to change. Fans were unsure about: what the game would look like in real life. Basically, the team asked for $1 million for a game that… didn’t exist yetonly on the promise that it would ever be good.
2/10 Project Ragtag
Project Ragtag was the code name for an acquaintance Star Wars game that was never released. It had a tough development cycle overseen by EA Games. It was also worked on by Amy Hennig, the author of the first three not mapped spell. It has now been announced that a game development team owned by Skydance Media teams up with Amy Hennig and Lucasfilms to create a new game, probably inspired by Project Ragtag.
EA and Disney had a strong vision of what ragtag should be. EA reportedly wanted recognizable faces from the series, while the development team (Visceral games) wanted something more original. Also, EA’s focus on the multiplayer game Star Wars: Battlefront II meant that Visceral was often left without much-needed help. In 2017, EA made the unfortunate decision to: close Visceral and redesign the project.
1/10 Silent Hills
The infamous PT demo was released in 2014 and eventually removed from the PlayStation Store by Konami. It was about to be silent hills, a revival of the beloved horror franchise. In particular, it was intended that it would also be directed by Hideo Kojima.
The precipitation between Hideo Kojima and Konami is well documented. Konami was supposedly frustrated with Kojima consistently going over budget, plus they shifted their focus to mobile games and pachinko machines. As a result, Silent Hills was canceled and the demo, PT, is now lost to media. We can only imagine the direction Silent Hills would have gone in if it had been developed into a full game. Only one thing’s for sure: fans raved about it, and now it’s gone. The future of Silent Hill is in the air.
0 Comments