While some games get cancelled before they even get announced, there are those that get announced, build up a significant amount of hype, and then get cancelled, leaving many fans bummed and wondering why they didn’t get a shot on the market. Some of the reasons behind their cancellation are a bit obvious.
But others just make no sense, especially considering the impact these games could’ve made had they been released. Alas. Still, we can’t help but revisit five of the most notoriously cancelled games and wonder just why they didn’t get their chance to shine.
Silent Hills
Several years ago, Konami released its infamous P.T. demo, a shockingly good taste of what was to eventually come from Silent Hills, a provocative new project from Hideo Kojima, Gulllermo Del Toro and actor Norman Reedus.
As you can see from the teaser trailer above, this was set to be a huge reintroduction to the classic horror series. Unfortunately, Konami was, at the time, Konami, and soured its relationship with Kojima following his work on Metal Gear Solid V. As a result, he broke off to work at his own studio, and Konami not only buried Silent Hills, but also the P.T. demo as well.
In fact, if you didn’t download it before, there’s no way to get it back, even if it’s in your library. It’s a shame. Silent Hills could’ve been just what we needed to bring the legendary series back to life. Fortunately, we do have good consolation with the Silent Hill 2 Remake coming this year.
Star Wars (Visceral Games)
At a time many years ago, EA was ready to embark on a new single player Star Wars adventure, with Dead Space creators Visceral Games at the helm and Amy Hennig (Uncharted) working on the script. It looked too good to be true…until, one day, it was.
In the face of its return to the Battlefront series, EA shifted gears, insisting that multiplayer games were the future. As a result, Visceral Games was shut down, along with its Star Wars title. It would never be seen again, not even with the controversy surrounding Star Wars: Battlefront II and its loot boxes.
We do have single player games again, thanks to the Jedi: Fallen Order releases, including Survivor, which drops next month. But Visceral Games’ adventure definitely deserved a shot at Rebellion glory.
Star Wars: 1313
Speaking of games that could’ve shaken up the Star Wars landscape, EA also had another game in production, 1313, that could’ve taken a more mature approach that previous releases. It definitely looked to be on the storytelling side of things, akin to Mass Effect; and its production value at the time was unmatched. You could tell the publisher was really pouring money into this one.
So why did 1313 go the way of the dodo? Easy – Disney. The company came and gobbled up the rights to Star Wars for $4 billion. As a result, it shut down LucasArts, as well as any
development on projects that were in the works at the time. That included 1313.
There is word that Disney could be thinking about resurrecting the game down the road. However, that appears to be a longshot. And a sad reminder that not everything we want comes to fruition.
StarCraft: Ghost
At a time when StarCraft was still one of Blizzard’s hottest properties, the company decided to try a bold new experiment called StarCraft: Ghost. With it, it would take an approach to straightforward action, kind of like what Warhammer did with its Space Marine release. As you can see, the game was pretty well put together at its time, but then something happened.
That thing was Blizzard essentially pulling the plug on the project. While no solid reasoning was given by the publisher, friction had reportedly built up between them and the developers at Swingin’ Ape Studios. Without accurate reports and hardly any sign of true progress, it didn’t have a choice.
Many also believe Blizzard cancelled Ghost because, well, it didn’t stand a “ghost” of a chance compared to its other popular multiplayer endeavors. Still, what might have been…
Sonic X-Treme
Finally, do you ever wonder why the Sega Saturn never got a true Sonic the Hedgehog adventure to call its own? Sure, it had Sonic R, Sonic Jam and Sonic 3D Blast, but never a truly, wholly original game. Well, it almost did.
For years, Sonic X-Treme was in development, featuring a weird-looking 3D style angle centering on the character. It was quite playable, and Sega believed it was making enough progress to give it a release.
However, because of technical issues and the lack of cooperation from creator Yuji Naka on using his NiGHTS engine (which would’ve made the game run much smoother), X-Treme never got to x-ist. Because of that, it remains a footnote in the Hedgehog’s lost files.
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