History Vaporware / VideoGames

* The [[https://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-3do_m2.htm#page=reviews M2]] was the intended successor to the Platform/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer. Having seen that the "license the design out to whoever and let them make $700 consoles" strategy didn't work the 3DO company decided to try and sell the M2 tech outright, and found a buyer in Matsushita, the parent company of Panasonic. Matsushita paid '''$100 million''' for the M2... and then for whatever reason never released it, with the M2 tech only being used in retail applications (notably a ''really'' fancy coffee machine.) A handful of prototypes do exist (and have sold for over $10,000 in the past), but without any games ever made for it there's really no point in seeking one out.

** Atari planned to follow up the Jaguar with a seven-processor beast of a machine. However, the Jaguar flopped so hard it basically killed Atari Corporation as a company and the successor never making it past the prototyping phase.

** No one is exactly sure what the [[https://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-mirai.htm#page=reviews Atari Mirai]] was supposed to be. The best guess anyone has come up with is that it may have been a licensed clone of the Platform/NeoGeo AES (before SNK decided to just release the AES in the U.S. themselves), but that's just speculation thanks to the huge cart slot and the fact that Atari's HQ and [=SNK's=] American branch were right across the street from each other in Sunnyvale, CA, and most employees of one company were friends with a lot of people in the other. Some also think it may have been an attempt to turn the Platform/AtariST into a console.

** No one is exactly sure what the [[https://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-mirai.htm#page=reviews Atari Mirai]] was supposed to be. The best guess anyone has come up with is that it may have been a budget clone of the Platform/NeoGeo AES, but that's just speculation thanks to the huge cart slot and the fact that Atari's HQ and [=SNK's=] American branch were right across the street from each other in Sunnyvale, CA, and most employees of one company were friends with a lot of people in the other. Some also think it may have been an attempt to turn the Platform/AtariST into a console.

* A UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch port of ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eyX2v7oDXs teased]] early in 2020, but ''ever since'' its announcement, there's absolutely no official word regarding this version of the game. However, according to [[https://www.dualshockers.com/genshin-impact-switch-version-delayed-due-to-weaker-hardware-report/ leaked news]], it is likely due to weaker hardware and various implementations such as microtransactions and eShop compatibility. While most generally assume that the idea has been shelved until at least the release of whatever the successor of the Switch ends up being, several game sites insist that the Switch port is ''still'' coming in every news to this day. In mid-2022, miHoyo stated they would finally announce the release date some time in December, which then came and went without a peep.

* ''God Fighter'' was to be a 3D UsefulNotes/FightingGame to use GGPO rollback netcode. It was being developed by Arcadia Software and to be published by Sigma Studioes. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pf-FUzmsgo There was a teaser trailer]] shown off at Evo 2022. Not much else was revealed about it other than that. After some silence, [[https://supercombo.gg/2022/08/25/god-fighter-developer-lets-ties-to-nft-game-slip-responds-promising-no-web3-elements/ Arcadia cut ties with the Sigma Studios]] due to Sigma forcing NFT and [=Web3=] integration on the project and Arcadia wanting none of that in their game. Sigma pitched ''God Fighter'' around to other developers, but no one wanted anything to with Sigma and the project fizzled away.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has been modded by the community basically since it launched, and the developers (Mojang) acknowledged this by committing to developing an official UsefulNotes/ApplicationProgrammingInterface for the game. Mojang went as far as [[http://www.minecraftforum.net/news/417-bukkit-officially-joins-mojang/ recruiting the lead developers]] of the community-made API [[http://www.bukkit.org Bukkit]] to lead the project. Within a few months, they established a [[http://dev.minecraft.net/blog/ blog]] and public [[https://github.com/Mojang/Minecraft-API Github]], and then proceeded to go silent. Neither the blog nor the Github have seen activity in nearly a year; and the Github does not even exist anymore. The devs have made mention of the API on Reddit several times since then, but there's no word on if it's still being actively worked on.

* ''Power Drive 2000'' was to be an '80s themed, UsefulNotes/{{Synthwave}}-soundtracked indie racing game funded via Website/{{Kickstarter}}, and got as far as an alpha build. However, no word has been heard on the project since Feb 2017, when [[ThatWasTheLastEntry the developer's last Twitter entry]] read "Chit-chatting with the lawyers", possibly indicating being ScrewedByTheLawyers.

* Creator/OceanSoftware had a French subsidiary that specialized in porting UsefulNotes/{{Arcade Game}}s to the Platform/{{Amiga}} and Platform/AtariST. Ocean France's ports of such games as ''VideoGame/{{Cabal}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Pang}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Toki}}'' were generally well-received, and ''Zero'' #19 included previews of their upcoming ST/Amiga ports of ''VideoGame/HammerinHarry'', ''Liquid Kids'' and ''VideoGame/SnowBros''. At least the Amiga versions of the latter two were completed, yet Ocean, apparently due to licensing problems, decided to cancel all of them and close Ocean France. The Amiga versions of ''Liquid Kids'' and ''Snow Bros'' were unearthed and leaked onto the Internet many years later.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeDreadwolf'' was first announced in 2015. Originally, it was going to be a smaller, more story driven narrative but development was shifted to Bioware's other struggling projects and it was pushed back. In 2018, the entire project was scrapped and restarted to add a live-service element to the game with a planned 2021 release which was pushed to 2022. In 2021, the live-service element was scrapped, with Bioware pushing their release prediction from 2022 to 2023. ''Dreadwolf'' did not appear in EA's [=FY24=] slate, meaning the soonest it could come out was late 2024. Then staff layoffs[[note]]50 employees, including senior writer Mary Kirby and technical director Jon Renish[[/note]] in August 2023 pushed release predictions to 2025.

* ''Good Luck, Charlie Brown'' was going to be the second ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' game for the Platform/Atari2600 (after ''Snoopy and the Red Baron''). The game would have been about Charlie Brown flying his kite while dodging obstacles in the sky. A prototype was found 14 years after the game was cancelled.

** ''VideoGame/SonicChronicles: The Dark Brotherhood'' ended on a cliffhanger SequelHook. The division of Creator/BioWare responsible for handheld games was later shut down with no announcement, and nothing has been heard of ''Chronicles 2'' in years. Many assume this is due to the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers lawsuit]] towards EA and Sega by Ken Penders, former head writer of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics''. But this actually is due to Creator/ElectronicArts buying [=BioWare=], cancelling the sequel, which was intended as the first in a series of ''Sonic'' RPGs, and ''Chronicles'' became a one-off game.

* Following ''VisualNovel/{{Doukyusei}}'' and its sequel, the series would mostly be kept alive with spin-offs, most prominently the ''Kakyūsei'' series. However, while Creator/ELFCorporation announced plans of making a proper ''Dōkyūsei 3'', which even got featured in several Japanese gaming magazines. It would languish in DevelopmentHell for years, however, and with Elf's closure in 2015, its status as permenant Vaporware seems to have been sealed.

** ''VideoGame/SonicChronicles: The Dark Brotherhood'' ended on a cliffhanger SequelHook. The division of Creator/BioWare responsible for handheld games was later shut down with no announcement, and nothing has been heard of ''Chronicles 2'' in years. Many assume this is due to the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers lawsuit]] towards EA and Sega by Ken Penders, former head writer of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics''