History TroubledProduction / Videogames

* Development of the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem port of ''Jim Power: The Lost Dimension'' was set back when licensed developer Piko Interactive tried to contact the original creator for approval, only to be met with two years of silence. Upon learning that [[AuthorExistenceFailure the creator had died around the time they initially tried to contact him]], Piko themselves worked to fully acquire the ''Jim Power'' IP before the game's development went back on track.

** To make a long story short, after ''The Walking Dead'' blew up and singlehandedly turned around the studio's perilous finances, and then Telltale grew eyes bigger than its belly. The small studio rapidly grew from fewer than a hundred people to over three hundred, and started greenlighting games based on licensed properties left and right in hopes of making the lightning of ''The Walking Dead'' strike twice. However, the studio's culture remained stuck an indie mindset that valued tribalism and buddy-buddy relationships over professionalism and open communication even as it entered the big leagues.

** The sheer chaos of the games' development is highly unusual and a much-talked-about subject among analysts, as not only did it mark the only time Game Freak delayed a mainline Pokémon game, but it also marked one of the most dramatic revamps of a Pokémon game from the initial drafts to the final release. The delays in development are also notable in that they forced the staff behind the Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime to improvise around the games' constantly-shifting release date, creating a FillerArc with the Orange Islands to ensure that the show could still keep running during the roughly two-year gap between the intended and actual release dates.

** Despite having increased the size of the team to over 500 people for the game, they were still considered grossly understaffed, and the company's inexperience with handling a large team further impacted work. There were also troubles between the native Polish employees and foreign expats brought in for work, with the expats frequently feeling disrespected. Against the backdrop of these troubles, management forced [[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-29/cyberpunk-2077-publisher-orders-6-day-weeks-ahead-of-game-debut a long period of brutal crunch time]] in order to get the game finished by its planned April 2020 release date, despite having [[LyingCreator publicly promised that no crunch would happen]]. This lead to numerous departures from longtime engineering staff due to overwork, as well as backlash when the crunch conditions were made public.

** [[TemptingFate Very quickly]], the same problems that plagued development on ''Andromeda'' hit ''Beyond''. Many [=BioWare=] employees blamed the creative leadership team for the turmoil, as they seemed to be designing the game by committee and agreeing on little in the way of a coherent vision. Ideas for the gameplay, setting, and lore of the game frequently shifted. They overtly sought to differentiate their game from the similar ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' and refused to learn from what it did right and wrong, especially as various changes made ''Beyond'' resemble ''Destiny'' that much more. Several developers expressed concerns that ''Beyond'' was repeating the same development mistakes as ''Andromeda'' and ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', but were brushed off by management.

** As 2019 ended, management realized that there was no possible way the game would be ready in time even as the team cut content, and in January 2020, with just three months before release, they announced that they were pushing it back to September. In June, they pushed it back to November as the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic severely impacted communication and workrate, and in October, after the game had been announced as having "gone gold", they pushed it back ''again'' to December as the team scrambled to fix severe bugs. By this point, next-generation consoles had already hit stores, scuttling the "double dip" plans and splitting the team's efforts between the new consoles and the prior generation.

** Creator/ActivisionBlizzard executives considered ''Warcraft III: Reforged'' to be a low priority, believing it wouldn't sell nearly as many copies as the likes of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' or ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''[[note]][[StrawmanHasAPoint There is truth to this belief]], as [[RealTimeStrategy RTS]] games were much more popular in the 1990s than in the 2010s–2020s; the original ''Warcraft III'' itself was a last hurrah for the genre[[/note]], so they decided to give the development team a cripplingly low budget that wasn't enough to allow them to deliver on the promises made at [=BlizzCon=] 2018, effectively dooming the project before development even began[[note]]Which begs the question, "If Activision Blizzard executives aren't interested in games that they think they won't make millions of dollars worth of profit from, then why greenlight ''Warcraft III: Reforged'' in the first place, unless their sole motivation was the opportunity to overwrite the original game with a remaster whose EULA gives the company exclusive ownership over user-created content?"[[/note]]. Budget cuts were also made during development, forcing the developers to cut more gameplay features, which resulted in features that were present in the original being absent from the remaster.

** At 2019 ended, management realized that there was no possible way the game would be ready in time even as the team cut content, and in January 2020, with just three months before release, they announced that they were pushing it back to September. In June, they pushed it back to November as the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic severely impacted communication and workrate, and in October, after the game had been announced as having "gone gold", they pushed it back ''again'' to December as the team scrambled to fix severe bugs. By this point, next-generation consoles had already hit stores, scuttling the "double dip" plans and splitting the team's efforts between the new consoles and the prior generation.

* Given the wildly ambitious scope of the project, it probably should come as no surprise that ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' went through this. A run 'n' gun game that [[DoingItForTheArt painstakingly reproduced the art, animation, and sound]] of 1930s cartoons by [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Fleischer Bros.]] and similar company, while also packing over three dozen varied boss battles; produced by a small indie studio of very limited staff on hand. As one would expect, it took a long and hard 7 years before the game became what it is today, and the development cost was so big that the Moldenhauer brothers, the game's creators, had to ''mortgage their house'' to get through it. It worked though -- the game sold over a million copies in two weeks, and received tons of acclaim and a handful of awards for its presentation.

** Creator/ActivisionBlizzard executives considered ''Warcraft III: Reforged'' to be a low priority, believing it wouldn't sell nearly as many copies as the likes of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' or ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''[[note]][[StrawmanHasAPoint There is truth to this belief]], as [[RealTimeStrategy RTS]] games were much more popular in the 1990s than in the 2010s–2020s; the original ''Warcraft III'' itself was a last hurrah for the genre[[/note]], so they decided to give the development team a low budget that wasn't enough to allow them to deliver on the promises made at [=BlizzCon=] 2018, effectively dooming the project before development even began[[note]]Which begs the question, "If Activision Blizzard executives aren't interested in games that they think they won't make millions of dollars worth of profit from, then why greenlight ''Warcraft III: Reforged'' in the first place, unless their sole motivation was the opportunity to overwrite the original game with a remaster whose EULA gives the company exclusive ownership over user-created content?"[[/note]]. Budget cuts were also made during development, forcing the developers to cut more gameplay features, which resulted in features that were present in the original being absent from the remaster.

* In July 2021, it was confirmed that development of ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III: Reforged''[[note]]A remaster of ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' that was released in January 2020 to an overwhelmingly negative response for [[GameBreakingBug Game-Breaking Bugs]] galore, failing to deliver on its promises, and even screwing over owners of the original 2002 game by merging the original with the remaster[[/note]] had been fraught with difficulties. Unsurprising, considering the remaster's disastrous reception.
** Creator/ActivisionBlizzard managers considered ''Warcraft III: Reforged'' to be a low priority, believing it wouldn't sell as many copies as the likes of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' or ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''[[note]][[StrawmanHasAPoint There is truth to this belief]], as [[RealTimeStrategy RTS]] games were much more popular in the original game's time than in the 2010s-2020s[[/note]], so they decided to give the developers a low budget that, unfortunately, wasn't enough to allow them to deliver on the promises made at [=BlizzCon=] 2018, effectively dooming the project before development even began. Budget cuts were also made during development, forcing the developers to cut more gameplay features, which resulted in features that were present in the original being absent from the remaster.

** Creator/ActivisionBlizzard managers considered ''Warcraft III: Reforged'' to be a low priority, believing it wouldn't sell as many copies as the likes of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' or ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''[[note]][[StrawmanHasAPoint There is truth to this belief]], as [[RealTimeStrategy RTS]] games were much more popular in the original game's time than in the 2010s-2020s[[/note]], so they decided to give the developers a low budget that, unfortunately, wasn't enough to allow them to deliver on the promises made at [=BlizzCon=] 2018. Budget cuts were also made during development, forcing the developers to cut more gameplay features, which resulted in features that were present in the original being absent from the remaster.

** Aya bailed and discussed his poor experience in a [=FurAffinity=] interview with ex-''Beast's Fury'' artist [=RockawayCarter=]. Stevens hassled Aya for his design -- despite that he never signed Aya's contact to be legally entitled to it -- and tried to stop the interview, to no avail. He responded by making his own [=FurAffinity=] interview that refuted Aya's points.

** [[https://ibijau.tumblr.com/post/136895458483#notes The voice actors also got the shaft]]. Stevens allegedly fired the voice actor of the Vincent character, ''and'' his replacement, when they asked to be paid. He later came crawling back for the original voice actor, who agreed to be rehired only after being payed first. However, Stevens sampled "demo recordings" and passed them off as final audio so that he didn't have to pay.

** The campaign backers never received their rewards. To quell the complaints, Stevens allegedly convinced one of his biggest supporters, who was terminally-ill, to lie on social media about receiving her wooden arcade stick, with Stevens promising to send her his arcade stick in return. She, of course, never received it, and Stevens stopped responding to her messages.

** Aya, the designer of the doujin fighting game ''MONSTER'', joined the project as a consultant. However, at Fein's request, he fully redesigned ''Beast's Fury''. Stevens never signed Aya's contract, and was hostile when approached about payment two and a half months later. Aya would learn that Stevens also owed money to Fein and Evil Dog lead programmer Marco Arsenaunt.
** The game attracted several investors; one of them, Creator/WayForwardTechnologies, bowed out due to Stevens' actions.[[note]] When interviewed, Aya declined to explain further.[[/note]] Stevens told Aya that one investor wanted a complete prototype ''in two weeks''. However, for not being payed, Arsenaunt refused to give Stevens the original engine's source code. Stevens convinced Aya to reschedule his eye surgery and create the prototype from scatch. Many sleepless nights later, Aya sent the prototype to the investor...only to learn that they never had a two week deadline to begin with; they simply wanted the prototype as soon as possible.

** The game attracted several investors; one of them, Creator/WayForwardTechnologies, bowed out due to Stevens' actions.[[note]] When interviewed, Aya declined to explain further.[[/note]] Stevens told Aya that one investor wanted a complete prototype ''in two weeks''. However, for not being payed, Arsenaunt refused to give Stevens the original engine's source code. Stevens convinced Aya to reschedule his eye surgery and create the prototype from scatch. Many sleepless nights later, Aya sent the prototype to the investor...only to learn that they never had such a strict deadline to begin with.

** The campaign backers never received their rewards. To quell the complaints, Stevens allegedly convinced one of his biggest supporters, who was terminally-ill, to lie on social media about receiving her wooden arcade stick, with Stevens promising to send her his arcade stick in return.

** The game attracted several investors; one of them, Creator/WayForwardTechnologies, bowed out due to Stevens' actions.[[note]] When interviewed, Aya declined to explain further.[[/note]] Stevens told Aya that one investor wanted a complete prototype ''in two weeks''. However, for not being payed, Arsenaunt refused to give Stevens the original engine's source code. Thus, Stevens convinced Aya to reschedule his eye surgery and create the prototype from scatch. Many sleepless nights later, Aya sent the prototype to the investor...only to learn that they never had such a strict deadline to begin with.
** [[CantTakeCriticism Criticism was either ignored or met with animosity]] by Stevens and Arsenaut. They squandered [[http://skullheart.com/index.php?threads/beasts-fury-kickstarter-is-live.6714/ their]] [[http://skullheart.com/index.php?threads/beasts-fury-updates-discussion.6723/ attempts]] to gain the ''Skullgirls'' community's support and sparked [[https://youtu.be/DslNQQ-Xmdc?t=572 further derision]] after clashing with ''Skullheart'' forum users, [[http://skullheart.com/index.php?threads/beasts-fury-kickstarter-is-live.6714/page-4#post-126307 stalking and harassing naysayers on social media]], and rejecting developer Mike "Z" Zaimont's advice and offer to provide them ''the Skullgirls game engine''.

** Stevens' projections for the animation costs were ''so'' inaccurate, his team couldn't finish the first two characters. After [[https://www.facebook.com/BeastsFuryGame/posts/810800969016456 admitting this]], he created [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beastsfurygame/keep-beasts-fury-going/ a fourth campaign]] with more realistic stretch goals. Investor and publisher interest never materialized (except one, which was supposedly turned down), forcing him to keep relying on crowdfunding. The campaign raised over $47,000, which funded the first two characters.

** Egregiously, a sequel and animated short film were planned...while ''the first demo'' languished in a two-year DevelopmentHell. Lead designer Andrew Fein, a professional ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' player, was inexperienced in game design and mostly added whatever (bad) ideas Ryhan wanted to the game. Upon release in 2015, the demo was a [[ObviousBeta buggy, unbalanced mess]]. Entire updates were dedicated to adding purely cosmetic elements.
** [[CantTakeCriticism Criticism was either ignored or met with animosity]] by Stevens and Marco Arsenaut, Evil Dog's lead programmer. They squandered [[http://skullheart.com/index.php?threads/beasts-fury-kickstarter-is-live.6714/ their]] [[http://skullheart.com/index.php?threads/beasts-fury-updates-discussion.6723/ attempts]] to gain the ''Skullgirls'' community's support and sparked [[https://youtu.be/DslNQQ-Xmdc?t=572 further derision]] after clashing with ''Skullheart'' forum users, [[http://skullheart.com/index.php?threads/beasts-fury-kickstarter-is-live.6714/page-4#post-126307 stalking and harassing naysayers on social media]], and rejecting developer Mike "Z" Zaimont's advice and offer to provide them ''the Skullgirls game engine''.

** Egregiously, a sequel and animated short film were planned...while ''the first demo'' languished in a two-year DevelopmentHell. Upon release in 2015, it was a [[ObviousBeta buggy, unbalanced mess]]. Entire updates were dedicated to adding purely cosmetic elements.

** [[https://ibijau.tumblr.com/post/136895458483#notes The voice actors also got the shaft]]. Stevens allegedly fired the voice actor of the Vincent character, ''and'' his replacement, when they asked to be paid. He later came crawling back for the original voice actor, who agreed to be rehired only after being payed first. Months after recording new samples, the voice actor discovered that most of the old ones were used anyway.

* The arcade ShootEmUp ''G-Stream 2020'' (aka: ''VideoGame/DeltaZeal'') has a [[http://shmuplations.com/triangleservice/ unique development history]]. The game was the brainchild of former Konami employee Toshiaki Fujino, who had struggled with self-doubt and unemployment and was about to leave the game industry entirely until he saw an employment ad from an obscure and rather shady Korean company named Oriental Soft, which specifically asked for someone interested in developing an arcade shoot'em up. As Fujino badly wanted to make such a game, he immediately took the job but the problems would not end there: Oriental Soft would not pay him or composer Hiroshi Tanabe (a.k.a. Naoto) for most of development, and the game ran on hardware that was flimsy and woefully outdated for 2001- in particular, the board only had 3MB of audio memory available for music, only enough for about 30 seconds of background soundtrack. The story would have an happy ending though, as after completing the game, Fujino and Naoto left Oriental Soft and founded their own company Creator/TriangleService, which would continue making arcade shoot'em ups, and eventually get the right to rerelease ''G-Stream 2020'' alongside their other games.

* Development on the UsefulNotes/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'' would end up getting a cool reception 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.

* ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'' was originally meant as a spiritual successor to the Classic ''Franchise/MegaMan'' franchise by series co-creator and main producer Keiji Inafune. However, a combination of big promises, a slashed budget and a desire to look and feel flashy and expensive led to a slow and troubled development. Not only they had to develop a game with all those difficulties but also release it on five consoles themselves with little external help. After multiple delays ended up released in mid-2016... at which point not only were there multiple counts of backer keys either not working or receiving DLC keys instead of the game, but the UsefulNotes/WiiU version caused the console to hard crash, and the release of the game on the Xbox 360, Mac and Linux were delayed even further. Upon release it was also critically savaged and creator Keiji Inafune [[http://kotaku.com/mighty-no-9-s-designer-says-i-will-own-all-the-proble-1782382706 accepted responsibility for the disappointing final product,]] citing the promise of developing ''10 versions of the game at once'' as a death knell in hindsight.
* The UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} [[VideoGame/MissionImpossible1997 adaptation]] of the 1996 ''Film/MissionImpossible'' film. The game was originally slated to be released in late-1996. However, constant ExecutiveMeddling (resulting in the game switching development teams midway through development) and problems fitting such an at-the-time ambitious game onto a small cartridge resulted in the game not seeing release until mid-1998 in North America. The final game actually wasn't half bad. However, its long development history definitely showed with its dated (even for 1998) graphics, buggy programming, and somewhat underdeveloped gameplay. The impending release of the competing ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' that same year certainly didn't help matters.

** The 2019 layoffs of over 800 employees across Creator/{{Activision}} and [[Creator/BlizzardEntertainment Blizzard]], which were the result of Activision Blizzard failing to meet expected earnings for 2018's fiscal year--which had been set so ridiculously high that 2018 had in fact been a record year in revenue for the company, earning widespread condemnation--were confirmed to have been a detriment to development.

* In July 2021, it was confirmed that development of ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III: Reforged''[[note]]A remaster of ''Warcraft III'' that was released in January 2020 to an overwhelmingly negative response for [[GameBreakingBug Game-Breaking Bugs]] galore, failing to deliver on its promises, and even screwing over owners of the original 2002 game by merging the original with the remaster[[/note]] had been fraught with difficulties. Unsurprising, considering the remaster's disastrous reception.