History TroubledProduction / VideoGamesNToZ

* ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'''s development is an example that had profound ramifications for Creator/{{Nintendo}}, Creator/{{Sony}} and [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]], as its fate is closely tied to the collapse of the Platform/{{SNESCDROM}}.
** The SNES CD-ROM was a joint project between Nintendo and Sony with ''Secret of Mana'' being developed as a KillerApp for the new add-on/hybrid console, but the CD-ROM project collapsed due to a bitter falling out between Nintendo and Sony; Sony's contract terms insulted Nintendo and Nintendo publicly snubbed Sony to partner with Philips at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (which itself would fall through). The game fell on the brink of cancellation as a result of the drama, but ExecutiveMeddling and contractual obligations forced the developers to continue working the game as a standard title for the SNES.
** The game went through massive cuts and reworking as a result of being forced onto the limited storage space of a cartridge. Director Koichi Ishii estimated that 40 percent of the game's content was axed in the transition, though most of the content and concepts cut from the game would find use in other Square [=RPGs=] such as ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' and ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana''. While the game was ultimately a success in both reviews and sales, the SNES CD-ROM incident and its impact on the game's development was a major catalyst behind Square's decision to sever its ties with Nintendo and partner with Sony, who would [[CreateYourOwnVillain turn the CD-ROM console idea into the wildly successful]] Platform/PlayStation. To add insult to injury, many of Squaresoft's games would prove to be major hits on Sony's system, most notably ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''.
** The English localization deserves special mention: [[{{Woolseyism}} Ted Woolsey]] had only one month to localize the game and was given the script out of order. Due to issues compressing the game's text space and the limited time given to localize the game, the English script was cut by about 40 percent with conversations chopped down to the base elements.

* The development of ''VideoGame/{{Redfall}}'' was practically a [[HistoryRepeats repeat]] of the development of ''VideoGame/Anthem2019'', with Arkane Austin being ordered by Bethesda to produce a game that could leap on the live service boom that was kicked off by ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'', despite the studio's experience being mostly with "immersive sim" games such as ''VideoGame/Prey2017''. Development lacked a clear goal throughout, with the game directors being accused of seeming content to make things up as they went along, and the development team was sorely under-staffed for a game of the scope that Bethesda wanted. It got to the point where the developers were actively ''hoping'' that Microsoft would order the game scrapped or development to be rebooted when they bought out Bethesda, only for them to not only not order any real course-correction on the game, but to start hyping it up as the next big exclusive for the Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS, which backfired big-time when the game released to heavily underwhelming reviews.

* The development of ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl'' managed to surpass both ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' and ''Clear Sky'' in the sheer scale of troubles that the development team faced.

** Even then, it has been far from an easy road. Initially given a release date of 2021, it was pushed back to April 2022 and then [[https://www.polygon.com/22880013/stalker-2-delay-release-date-2022-xbox December 2022]]. In December 2021, GSC announced plans for in-game Non-Fungible Tokens, only to be met with such backlash that [[https://www.polygon.com/22841151/stalker-2-nft-content-canceled-reaction they retracted such plans with an apology]]. In February 2022, [[https://www.gamespot.com/articles/stalker-2-dev-based-in-ukraine-gives-an-update-amid-russia-attacks/1100-6501214/ development was suspended]] due to the UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n military invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} while much of the team relocated to the UsefulNotes/CzechRepublic to resume development. One of the developers, Volodymyr Yezhov, was confirmed to have been killed in battle in December 2022. In the first half 2023, Russian hackers made threats of ContentLeak if "Russian-friendly changes" to the game were not made.

** Even then, it has been far from an easy road. Initially given a release date of 2021, it was pushed back to April 2022 and then [[https://www.polygon.com/22880013/stalker-2-delay-release-date-2022-xbox December 2022]]. In December 2021, GSC announced plans for in-game Non-Fungible Tokens, only to be met with such backlash that [[https://www.polygon.com/22841151/stalker-2-nft-content-canceled-reaction they retracted such plans with an apology]]. In February 2022, [[https://www.gamespot.com/articles/stalker-2-dev-based-in-ukraine-gives-an-update-amid-russia-attacks/1100-6501214/ development was suspended]] due to the UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n military invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} while much of the team relocated to the UsefulNotes/CzechRepublic to resume development. One of the developers, Volodymyr Yezhov, was confirmed to have been killed in battle in December 2022.

** In normal circumstances, the game would have been cancelled outright long ago. However, Ubisoft had a special arrangement with the Singaporean government in which the studio would have significant tax credits in the country, so long as original IP games are being made there. However, this generosity would run out sometime by 2023, where the game would be finally released, and [[ObviousBeta in a state missing a substantial amount of announced features]] that Ubisoft couldn't afford to keep going. By then, Ubisoft spent around ''$200 million'' on the game's developments, and when combined with its tepid critical reception and underwhelming player numbers, [[https://insider-gaming.com/skull-and-bones-players-total/ even they don't anticipate to ever break even]].

** In normal circumstances, the game would have been cancelled outright long ago. However, Ubisoft had a special arrangement with the Singaporean government in which the studio would have significant tax credits in the country, so long as original IP games are being made there. However, this generosity would run out sometime by 2023, where the game would be finally released, and [[ObviousBeta in a state missing a substantial amount of announced features]] that Ubisoft couldn't afford to keep going. By then, Ubisoft spent around ''$200 million'' on the game's developments, and when combined with its tepid critical reception and underwhelming player numbers, [[https://insider-gaming.com/skull-and-bones-players-total/ even they don't anticipate to ever break even]].* ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' was hit with a litany of production problems, mostly after its release in April 2012:

* According to [[https://kotaku.com/first-it-was-an-assassins-creed-expansion-now-its-ubis-1847326742 a Kotaku expose]], almost no progress has been made on the ''VideoGame/{{Skull and Bones}}'' during its eight years in development. With the core premise of the game changing at least four times and development costs stated to already have hit $120 million, it took ''eleven years'' for it to finally see its release in February of 2024.

** In normal circumstances, the game would have been cancelled outright long ago. However, Ubisoft has a special arrangement with the Singaporean Government in which the studio would have significant tax credits in the country, so long as original IP games are being made there. In effect, ''Skull and Bones'' is too big to fail.
* ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' was hit with a litany of production problems, mostly after its release in April 2012:

* Development on the Platform/SegaSaturn version of ''VideoGame/VirtuaRacing'' was somewhat difficult due to a lack of support from Sega, as chronicled in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjhDXStrFdc a 2021 video by YouTube channel "PandaMonium Reviews Every U.S. Saturn Game"]]. Instead of developing it internally as with the previous Genesis and 32X ports, Sega outsourced the Saturn ''Virtua Racing'' to American developer [[Creator/{{Atari}} Time Warner Interactive]], who were not given the game's source code, or indeed much reference material beside model data for the tracks and a loaned cabinet of the arcade original. Despite aiming it to be a launch title for the system, Sega did not initially provide them a Saturn devkit ''either'', which means that for the first few months of development, Time Warner Interactive had neither ressources for the source game or the target hardware, and until the team received its own devkit in December 1994, one employee had to stay at Sega of America's headquarters and work overnight on their spare hardware. When they did receive one, they found that the original "Sophia" kit was an unwiedly beast that lacked a debugger, so the solution was to carefully remove the CPU from it and emulate it by placing it in an Hitachi workstation. Not all was bad, however, as Sega exerted little oversight during development, allowing the developers to add a generous amount of extra tracks, cars and modes (indeed, still the biggest of any incarnation of ''Virtua Racing''). In the end, ''Time Warner Interactive's VR Virtua Racing'' got a cool reception at release due to its controls and physics being inaccurate to the arcade game and its graphics being massively outdated compared to the likes of ''VideoGame/DaytonaUSA'', and still stands as easily the most [[ContestedSequel divisive]] release of the game.

** During the final days of December 2023, things went even more downhill once a victim statement purportedly denying the September 2023 allegations was posted -- only for evidence to surface that portions of it had been written by both [=YandereDev=] and his main composer [=CameronF305=]. This led to a second round of grooming allegations against both of them, including but not limited to the latter sending the victim explicit imagery, and the former having knowledge of her address and making plans to meet her. On New Year's Day 2024, [=YandereDev=] would attempt to dispel the controversy with a video in which his key piece of evidence was the aforementioned victim statement, which met a mixed to negative reception which resulted in him rendering it private a few days later, and the victim statement being outright deleted. Occurring around the same time was the release of the custom mode -- [[RuleOfThree which yet again]] had numerous glitches requiring daily bug-fixing builds, followed by substantial work being done on the second rival, which faced criticism for the high amount of corners cut due to the aforementioned loss of professional voice talent. Meanwhile, accusations were made of [=CameronF305=] making legal threats towards people attempting to create videos documenting the existing allegations, before a former voice actress for ''Yandere Simulator'' provided screenshots and audio recordings from both herself and the initial victim supporting more abuse and outright rape allegations against him at the beginning of February 2024. He too would make a 3-hour long video attempting to debunk said allegations a few days later, only for it to face scrutiny over accusations of ManipulativeEditing, focusing more on [[AccentuateTheNegative negatively portraying his accusers]], and filtering comments to silence criticism. In April 2024, however, [=CameronF305=] decided to collaborate with a rival ''Yandere Simulator'' subreddit, who promptly [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Osana/comments/1c48uwv/the_truth_about_cameronf305/ cleared up and properly debunked the allegations against him]], to a cautiously optimistic response by its users... around the same time that recordings of [=YandereDev=] soliciting explicit material came to light. With the game still nowhere near complete and the massive controversy regarding the persistent sexual misconduct allegations, [=YandereDev=]'s responses to them, and [=CameronF305=] getting caught in the crossfire, outside of its remaining diehard fanbase, ''Yandere Simulator'''s cancellation has become not a matter of if, but when.

** Enter the Gem System, a [[BribingYourWayToVictory a pay-to-win powerup mechanic]]. Retailers offered their own gem packs, nearly all of them better than the subpar pack in the base edition. Players rejected the gem system outright, while tournaments banned it, leaving the system, which was expected to go on for years, to be dropped after a few months.

** And then came the DLC characters. Twelve DLC characters were intended to be released for the console ports to coincide with the PS Vita port release. But hackers discovered them early. This was a concern Capcom USA's marketing team brought up with the Japanese branch, who couldn't fathom that anyone would do something as illegal as cracking the games. Their request to remove the DLC characters were also ignored. Needless to say, fan goodwill plummeted further, which resulted in the DLC characters officially being released a month early.

* ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'', the second-to-final installment in the critically-acclaimed ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' series, wasn't exactly smooth sailing for developer Creator/NaughtyDog. In March 2014, it came to light that series writer and creative director Amy Henning, along with game director Justin Richmond, the who worked ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'' and -- at the time -- ''Uncharted 4'', had left Naughty Dog to work at Visceral Games and Riot Games, respectively, citing CreativeDifferences with Naughty Dog. Later, Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, the game directors for ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' , were revealed in June 2014 as taking Henning and Richmond's place. Conversely, this meant that some plot ideas and eight months of shooting were scrapped. Creator/ToddStashwick was also set to play Drake's brother Sam, but he was later replaced by Creator/TroyBaker. As a result of this, the game missed its 2015 launch to ensure extra development time, and after several small delays was finally released in May 2016.

** During the final days of December 2023, things went even more downhill once a victim statement purportedly denying the September 2023 allegations was posted -- only for evidence to surface that portions of it had been written by both [=YandereDev=] and his main composer [=CameronF305=]. This led to a second round of grooming allegations against both of them, including but not limited to the latter sending the victim explicit imagery, and the former having knowledge of her address and making plans to meet her. On New Year's Day 2024, [=YandereDev=] would attempt to dispel the controversy with a video in which his key piece of evidence was the aforementioned victim statement, which met a mixed to negative reception which resulted in him rendering it private a few days later, and the victim statement being outright deleted. Occurring around the same time was the release of the custom mode -- [[RuleOfThree which yet again]] had numerous glitches requiring daily bug-fixing builds. Meanwhile, accusations were made of [=CameronF305=] making legal threats towards people attempting to create videos documenting the existing allegations, before a former voice actress for ''Yandere Simulator'' provided screenshots and audio recordings from both herself and the initial victim supporting more abuse and outright rape allegations against him at the beginning of February 2024. He too would make a 3-hour long video attempting to debunk said allegations a few days later, only for it to face scrutiny over accusations of ManipulativeEditing, focusing more on [[AccentuateTheNegative negatively portraying his accusers]], and filtering comments to silence criticism. With the game still nowhere near complete and the massive controversy regarding the persistent sexual misconduct allegations and both [=YandereDev=] and [=CameronF305=]'s responses to them, outside of its remaining diehard fanbase, ''Yandere Simulator'''s cancellation has become not a matter of if, but when.

* ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsRevengeOfTheFlyingDutchman'' encountered a multitude of issues during its development, as covered by Who Needs Normal? in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCECvC3iaVo this video]].
** The game was developed through the American division of French developer Kalisto Entertainment, who also developed the console video game adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius''. When THQ announced that they wanted a ''[=SpongeBob=]'' video game project, artists from Kalisto USA quickly created a working level prototype, using the technology given by Kalisto France, in only two weeks. The quick response time, as well as the generally impressive demo, landed Kalisto as the developer of the project.
** Things began to fall apart shortly afterwards. Alongside having to create a design document that needed to be approved by series creator Stephen Hillenburg and Nickelodeon, Kalisto USA began to run into technical problems regarding the internal engine developed by their parent company, who had to constantly update the code in order to properly do anything at all. There were points where both teams couldn't even make progress because Kalisto France never saw this as a big issue. Producer Billy Joe Cain described in a 2019 interview (around 11:43 in the video) the issues of having to wait for updates to the engine, with one notable instance where, upon calling the French office, Cain and the rest of the USA crew found out that they were taking the entirety of August off. In addition, to stay afloat, Kalisto outright ''begged'' the USA team just for a piece of the money the USA crew were making on development.
** Kalisto's shady practices soon began to show, and they would shut down in April 2002, leaving the USA team with two unfinished products that they needed and wanted to complete. Not wanting to be separated, five staff members ultimately came to deciding a new name: [=BigSky=] Interactive. Alongside this, Wendy White worked with another team to adapt Kalisto's engine into something more usable, the result being [=ToonTech=], which was used to finish ''[=SpongeBob=]'' and ''Jimmy Neutron''.
** With the deadline to finish the game approaching, certain concepts were scrapped. Notably, the [=GameCube=] version was to have functionality with the GBA version, where the Flying Dutchman's treasures would be found with the GBA serving as a radar; the final version uses the [=GameCube=]'s rumble function for this, with the remnants being left in the code.
** Things only got worse from there on out, as the relationship between THQ and [=BigSky=] became strained during development. Initally, they were kind to let them continue working on the project, since they were so deep into development they couldn't hand it off to a different developer. Later, however, THQ began to pay them less and less, to the point where it would come down to the last ''hour'' before the bank closed. This greatly stressed management to the point where they were ''begging'' THQ for funds until the ''last possible minute''. The entire development team became tense due to crunch time, and issues would rear their ugly heads. One of the lead designers lost his grandfather, who lived in Japan, and had to be gone for a whole week, a move which didn't sit well with one of the producers at THQ, who went ballistic.
** During development, [=BigSky=] realized that none of the publishers they contacted were calling back, which meant that the only way they were getting funds was when ''[=SpongeBob=]'' shipped, which was only a few weeks away. This meant that even more members were laid off, with some only working on it on an off-and-on basis.
** Problems continued to affect [=BigSky=] after release. An infamous glitch that occurred in the [=PS2=] version where the game would be stuck on the loading screen, which would lead to the game saves being corrupted or even outright deleted was a result of a soft reset tactic that they had to work around due to Sony's draconian policy about loading screens being longer than six seconds.
** What ultimately killed [=BigSky=], in addition to running out of money, was that a friend of Billy Joe Cain (a former [=BigSky=] developer) confided to him why [=BigSky=] closed down: he was in a meeting with Jeff Lapin (who at that point had transferred to Creator/TakeTwoInteractive shortly before the game was released) and he overheard that Jeff had ''blacklisted the entire company'' to spite them for rejecting THQ's offer to buy them. With [=BigSky=] no longer receiving any replying phone calls from publishers to release their future video games (such as the upcoming ''Terminal Code''), the studio would lay off its employees before closing down in March 2003.

** But the damage had been done, as the ObviousBeta nature of the alpha build ended up with even more [[FanDisillusionment jaded fans and volunteers]] who abandoned the game's development in response to not only the botched release, but also [=YandereDev=]'s controversies being brought into the spotlight, not helped by more scandals, most surrounding his growing [[CantTakeCriticism inability to handle criticism]] and poor showings on social media piling on even after the subreddit was reclaimed (with one such scandal regarding a Discord moderator's dissociative identity disorder causing a prominent volunteer to withdraw support for the game). While [=YandereDev=] continued to implement new features and occasional bug fixes, the fear that the game will become {{Vaporware}} continued to persist.

** ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'' had the team immediately sent back in the trenches as executives demanded yearly games to capitalize on the popularity of the franchise. Toby Gard and lead programmer Paul Douglas, already angered by the [[SexSells sexualized]] marketing of Lara Croft, balked at the deadline and left the team, turning down over a million pounds in royalties. The game was built by a mixture of old and new talent in the span of ''eight months'', with brutal crunch from the onset that saw developers sleeping under their desks and breaking relationships with their families. The first batch of demo disks sent to Sony were unplayable due to bad copy-protection, which the team hastily fixed after Sony "went nuclear" over the incident.

** ''VideoGame/TombRaiderChronicles'' continued the burnout as franchise fatigue began taking a toll, with each new game slowly declining in overall sales. Legal troubles hit when the character of Jean-Yves from ''The Last Revelation'' got the attention of real-life French archeologist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Yves_Empereur Jean-Yves Empereur]], who found the character's resemblance to him to be more than coincidental, forcing Eidos to publicly apologize and Core to hastily cut the character out of the game. By this point, the exhausted team was simply going through the motions, with designer Andy Sandham outright calling the game "a load of old shit" that nobody at Core had passion for. The end result was the worst-selling game in franchise history at that point, and even the positive reviews voiced concerns that the series had become StrictlyFormula. Its development also cut into resources available for ''The Angel Of Darkness''.

** The game was essentially [[TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup made by committee]]. The senior management at Core was seeking to play FollowTheLeader with the big games of the time, and told the team to incorporate ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''[='=]s stealth gameplay, ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}''[='=]s character interaction, and RPGElements, among other features. They also commissioned a DarkerAndEdgier 'epic' story that would [[EpisodicGame span multiple games]] and take place mostly in modern city environments, as opposed to the tombs and lost civilizations that were the series' hallmark. This led to the game being essentially cut in half midway through development, leaving behind a tangle of {{plot hole}}s, inconsistencies, and characters and story elements that felt tacked-on. None of this went over well with the developers, who had enough trouble getting the game to work properly on the [=PS2=] hardware.
** The public first became aware of these problems at [=E3=] 2002, when Creator/{{Eidos}} and Core showcased 'playable' levels that were little more than tech demos, showing that the game was nowhere near a state where it could be finished by its Fall 2002 release date. Another demonstration at a buyers' conference saw Core co-founder Jeremy Heath-Smith cursing on stage over the buggy state the game was in.
** The game finally came out in June 2003, whereupon it met a scathing reception and sales numbers to match. The fiasco was a CreatorKiller for Core and a FranchiseKiller for ''Tomb Raider'', which only survived by way of [[VideoGame/TombRaiderLegend a reboot]] from Crystal Dynamics.

** As of January 2016, Website/{{Twitch}} [[ScrewedByTheNetwork banned the game]] and threatened to immediately suspend anyone caught streaming it. [=YandereDev=] stated in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS6GLrM0mVA a video]] that he was provided no explanation for this, arguing that the violent and questionable content in ''Yandere Simulator'' can be seen in other games allowed by Twitch. An official response ''finally'' came in February 2017, stating that things in early builds like the naked [[Manga/AttackOnTitan Titans]] and violence against minors[[note]](no peaceful executions existed at the time)[[/note]] had violated guidelines. While later versions have rectified most of the complaints, Twitch has nonetheless refused to re-review the game until it is closer to completion.

** The hectic production resulted in a growing number of irate ex-fans who in mid-2020 responded by hacking [[Website/{{Reddit}} the game's official subreddit]], revealing extremely unsavory information about [=YandereDev=] in regards to his beliefs on sexual consent and mental illness, and endorsing the rival product ''Love Letter: My True Feelings''. The one-two-three punch convinced [=YandereDev=] that he would have to deliver fast, and so he finally officially released the first rival. The results showed clearly that it was rushed to avoid the threat of competition: [[GameBreakingBug framerate, texture and pathfinding issues were in high supply]], and bug fixes were being churned out daily. ''Love Letter'' soon crashed and burned itself in the wake of [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor sexual misconduct allegations against its project leader]], and the alpha build of ''Yandere Simulator'' eventually became stable enough to cease daily updates.

** During the final days of December 2023, things went even more downhill once a victim statement purportedly denying the September 2023 allegations was posted -- only for evidence to surface that portions of it had been written by both [=YandereDev=] and his main composer [=CameronF305=]. This led to a second round of grooming allegations against both of them, including but not limited to the latter sending the victim explicit imagery, and the former having knowledge of her address and making plans to meet her. On New Year's Day 2024, [=YandereDev=] would attempt to dispel the controversy with a video in which his key piece of evidence was the aforementioned victim statement, which met a mixed to negative reception which resulted in him rendering it private a few days later, and the victim statement being outright deleted. Occurring around the same time was the release of the custom mode -- [[RuleOfThree which yet again]] had numerous glitches requiring daily bug-fixing builds. Meanwhile, accusations were made of [=CameronF305=] making legal threats towards people attempting to create videos documenting the existing allegations, before both the initial victim and a former voice actress for ''Yandere Simulator'' provided screenshots and audio recordings supporting more abuse and outright rape allegations against him a few days later. With the game still nowhere near complete and the massive controversy regarding the persistent sexual misconduct allegations and both [=YandereDev=] and [=CameronF305=]'s responses to them, outside of its remaining diehard fanbase, ''Yandere Simulator'''s cancellation has become not a matter of if, but when.

* ''Creator/StevenSeagal is The Final Option'' was designed around the then-unusual conceit of creating an entirely originally game specifically to star a Hollywood actor, rather than basing a licensed game on one of their films or TV shows. And much like many of Seagal's films, the production was severely problematic; in this case, to the point where the game eventually died in DevelopmentHell.

** Seagal's management did point them in the direction of some of his regular stunt doubles for the live-action shoot (the game would use the same digitized actor technique made popular by ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1992''), but [=TecMagik=] thought even ''that'' would be too expensive, and they ended up hiring a martial artist named Greg Goldsholl, who bore a passing at best resemblance to Seagal (though at the resolution the game operated at, this wasn't massively noticeable).
** RSP were given the source code and assets that a previous developer had been working on -- which turned out to be useless as it was for a ''driving'' game, much to the RSP team's bewilderment as Seagal's films were known for their martial arts, not vehicle chases. This forced them to junk everything and start over.

** The final nail in the coffin came when ''On Deadly Ground'' proved a major critical and commercial bomb, and sent Seagal's career into a major downward spiral. Between the money they had already wasted on the second live-action shoot and the Genesis "port", [=TecMagik=] decided to cut their losses and abandoned the project, with the staff at RSP viewing the decision as a MercyKill. The game's troublesome development would ultimately prove a CreatorKiller for [=TecMagik's=] US branch, who went out of business not long afterwards; their UK branch remains in operation to this day, but purely as a consulting business for developers and publishers.

** They were rejected by every publisher they sent it to, and had to [[{{Doujinshi}} self-publish]]. The game was initially made in UsefulNotes/{{Unity}}, but halfway through development the decision was made to scrap the whole thing and remake it in UsefulNotes/UnrealEngine. At one point when they were low on manpower, Takuro pulled an [[Creator/SatoruIwata Iwata]] and started optimizing memory bottlenecks ''himself'' despite having never touched Unreal before.

* ''VideoGame/SoulSaga'', which was initially pitched as a classic turn-based JRPG, had a very difficult development. Originally conceived in 2008 with 2D graphics, Mike "Disastercake" Gale was dissatisfied with what he had and made a Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign in 2013 to make the game 3D, which raised over 3 times its 60k goal. Intended for a 2014 release, it faced several delays due to Mike's ever-changing vision of what the game should be like, leading to things like his wife divorcing him due to [[{{Workaholic}} his obsession with working on the game]] and him becoming homeless and having to work from his car. Not helping was a GameBreakingBug that was completely the fault of the UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} game engine, meaning Mike could do nothing but wait until a new version of the engine came out without that issue. [[EpisodicGame Episode 1]] of ''Soul Saga'' would only see release (in Early Access form) in 2020, where it ended up getting negative reviews, mainly due to being too different from what was initially promised, and eventually stopped getting any updates, seemingly being abandoned.

* According to [[https://kotaku.com/first-it-was-an-assassins-creed-expansion-now-its-ubis-1847326742 a Kotaku expose]], almost no progress has been made on the ''VideoGame/{{Skull and Bones}}'' during its eight years in development. With the core premise of the game changing at least four times and development costs stated to already have hit $120 million, the end is still considered to be nowhere in sight.

** The central reason as to why development has taken so long is that beyond being a multiplayer pirate game with ships, the developers cannot decide what kind of game Skull and Bones is meant to be. Does the player play as an individual pirate captain; or as the entire ship? Is there a large overworld similar to the Assassins Creed games; or does the game use individual sessions? Can the player do missions on land? Are crafting mechanics involved? Fundamental and foundational design like these were constantly being opened, closed and reopened, with no end in sight.

** In normal circumstances, the game would have been cancelled outright long ago. However, Ubisoft has a special arrangement with the Singaporean Government in which the studio would have significant tax credits in the country, so long as original IP games are being made there. In effect, Skull and Bones is too big to fail.

** During the final days of December 2023, things went even more downhill once a victim statement purportedly denying the September 2023 allegations was posted -- only for evidence to surface that portions of it had been written by both [=YandereDev=] and his main composer [=CameronF305=]. This led to a second round of grooming allegations against both of them, including but not limited to the latter sending the victim explicit imagery, and the former having knowledge of her address and making plans to meet her. On New Year's Day 2024, [=YandereDev=] would attempt to dispel the controversy with a video in which his key piece of evidence was the aforementioned victim statement, which met a mixed to negative reception which resulted in him rendering it private a few days later, and the victim statement being outright deleted. Occurring around the same time was the release of the custom mode -- [[RuleOfThree which yet again]] had numerous glitches requiring daily bug-fixing builds. With the game still nowhere near complete and the massive controversy regarding the sexual misconduct allegations and [=YandereDev=]'s response to them, outside of its remaining diehard fanbase, ''Yandere Simulator'''s cancellation has become not a matter of if, but when.

** Furthermore, the game was slated to come out on the Platform/NintendoGameCube, but publisher Creator/{{Vivendi}} didn't want to spend much money on porting the game to a system with a limited install base, so they gave the job to just one person, lead programmer Cary Brisebois. Amazingly, he managed to convert all of the game's code to work on the [=GameCube=] in the few weeks he was given to port the game, though the fact that the port was entirely the work of one man shows in its ObviousBeta nature compared to the v/PlayStation2 and Platform/{{Xbox}} versions.

* Given the history of its predecessors, production on the reboot of ''Perfect Dark'' being just as troubled was only appropriate. [[https://www.ign.com/articles/xboxs-perfect-dark-reboot-is-still-years-away This article]] by Rebekah Valentine goes into more detail on a game that, several years after its announcement, still remains far from the light of day with little information released.

** Wanting to make the game a SpiritualSuccessor to their previous ''VideoGame/{{Goldeneye}}'', Rare quickly encountered troubles as their ambitions ran into the limitations of the hardware of the Nintendo 64, which eventually necessitated the usage of the Expansion Pack and shipping the game on a 32 megabyte cartridge. Fourteen months in to the nearly three year long development cycle, with the development team growing frustrated at the lack of progress, workplace atmosphere and their increasingly stressed relationship with Nintendo, Lead Designer Martin Hollis left the company and was followed by a number of ''Goldeneye'' veterans to form Free Radical.
** Despite this setback, the remaining team was able to continue on, bolstered by members from other Rare teams joining the project. Late in development, real-world events also impacted the game as the Columbine High School massacre forced Rare to cut some minor content from the game, but its violent content attached to the family-friendly image of Nintendo still [[https://archive.org/details/newsweek-2000-06-12-rethinking-the-death-penalty-red/page/n25/mode/2up caused some controversy]]. The game was released in 2000 to critical acclaim, but only sold roughly one quarter as many copies as ''Goldeneye'' due to being one of the last games released on the Nintendo 64.

** With initial development starting on the Nintendo Gamecube, the incresingly fractured relationship between Rare and Nintendo along with the stresses of making ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'' kept Rare from making much progress. With Rare bought out by Microsoft and made a first-party developer for the Xbox in 2002, development on ''Zero'' picked up, now on the Xbox platform. Despite plans for an {{Anime}}-like art style being scuttled after fan backlash proved too intense, development on the Xbox was fairly smooth until 2004.
** With the Xbox 360 launching next year and the expected KillerApp titles like ''VideoGame/Halo3'' and ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' unable to make the launch window, Microsoft pivoted ''Zero'' to be an Xbox 360 launch title, giving Rare a year to rework the game to be a showcase for the new hardware. This required brutal crunch development that forced several features to be cut from the game, and development was so rushed that Microsoft waived the final certification requirements for ''Zero'', a move that could have been disastrous had a GameBreakingBug been discovered in the final build. The game was released along with the Xbox 360 in November of 2005 to good reviews and profitable sales, although the later runaway successes of ''Halo 3'' and ''Gears of War'' painted ''Zero'' in a more negative light in retrospect.

** The game cost almost seven million dollars to develop, with no budget planning whatsoever. Takuro preferred the IgnoranceIsBliss approach and actively avoided looking at the development costs, while being completely willing to risk bankruptcy. A week before the game's Early Access release they realized that they were finally out of money.
** Many praised the game's high level of polish by Early Access standards, which made it all the more shocking that the programmers [[GeniusDitz basically had no idea what they were doing]]. Their code had no naming conventions or version control, relying on "buckets of flash drives" to keep it all straight.