Worst cancellation in gaming history?

Sometimes, developers get overambitious. Sometimes, they pour all their heart and soul into one project. But unfortunately, problems occur, and they have to throw all their hard work away. So what was the most heartbreaking example? What announcement made you super-duper excited, then all of a sudden, BAM, cancellation?

Mine: The Van Buren project. Sure, this is old news, but after looking at the gameplay, it had SOOO much potential. Sure, a real time point and click Fallout seems like hell when you think about it, but if they pulled it off, it would have been the ultimate example of what a sequel should be... Well, in the end, they did make a vastly different Fallout 3 that's good in it's own right, but still!

edited 29th Mar '12 12:30:35 AM by eternalNoob

Van Buren was my first thought, too. Others I can think of are the Aliens RPG Obsidian was going to develop, and I'm pretty sure Anachronox 2 was on the drawing board at some point.

There was also a Fallout-like RPG Troika was working on. They were even trying to acquire the Fallout license, but Bethesda had more money, so no publishers were interested in Troika's not-Fallout post-apoc game and they went out of business.

edited 29th Mar '12 4:24:11 AM by Talby

They weren't trying to aquire Fallout (they didn't have that kind of money) but they did initially have a deal with a publisher who were trying to acquire Fallout but that published backed out after the money Interplay was demanding for it.

Along with Troika's post apoc game they were also planning a sequel to Arcanum called Journey to the centre of Arcanum which I would've loved to play.

Also, alongside Van Buren, Jefferson aka BG 3 The Black Hound sounded really awesome though I guess a lot of those ideas came back in the form of Mot B.

Right, that. Either way, no more Troika.

Oh, and let's not forget Mega Man Legends 3. CAPCOOOOM!

KOTOR 3 :/ , but Obsidian should have done it. I used to love Star Wars when I was much younger, then I started to dislike it and Obsidian reignited my interest with their unique approach to the setting. It didn't last for long. KOTOR 1 by Bioware was nice, in the usual predictable-but-still-awesome Bioware way, but I think 2 was the better game, and one example of Darker and Edgier and deep done really well.

edited 29th Mar '12 2:00:18 AM by Anfauglith

Chrono Trigger Resurrection. A good-looking 3D remake Screwed by the Lawyers to make what instead? Chrono Trigger DS: Still in 2D, and the most notable addition was a new What Were We Fighting For? Happy Ending Override ending.

edited 25th Jun '18 3:23:38 AM by Medinoc

Seconding that. It had an awesome soundtrack too, a shame it will never be completed.

Not sure if many here remember, but The Cassandra Project mod for Deus Ex looked very promising at the time.

Hopefully this is the first and last time where a cancellation happens to matter to me: seconding MML3.

I was really interested in Edge of Twilight, but the studio went under and that was the end of it.

Starfox 2.◊

Seconded.

Also, C&C Renegade 2, which was supposed to be set in the Red Alert universe and have you play as Tanya. It got cancelled because EA believed that the idea was too similar to another FPS in development at the time, BF 1942.

The Rogue Squadron compilation on the Wii.

Even if all that was published is a bunch of concept art and a bullshot CGI trailer., I was curious to see how Stormbirds would have turned out like, since arcade flight combat is my favourite genre. The setting looked pretty creative at least.

edited 29th Mar '12 5:20:55 AM by Glowsquid

For me it's partly The Force Unleashed 3. At first the first game seemed overkill, then the second game along with itself built up a great momentum plot-wise and market-wise. Then what happened? It got axed

Project Lapis.

OK, seriously now: I'd go with Tiberium, Highlander: The Game and Gotham by Gaslight.

Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End.

Dark Corners of the Earth, despite not as good as it was supposed to be, is still a great game. Destiny's End would have been quite different but with a lot potential. Alas...

Actually, the same goes for ever potential CoC project by Headfirst.

edited 29th Mar '12 5:38:08 AM by Nyarly

Speaking of Lovecraft games, how about Cyclopean? It was being made by Iron Tower, the same studio behind Age of Decadence, although with a different team. Basically a Cthulhu RPG with a party and turn-based combat, kind of an adaptation of the tabletop game.

edited 29th Mar '12 6:29:18 AM by Talby

Never heard of that one.

Sometimes, a cancellation might be a good thing. Think about it this way: EA's internal QA team found that the team making Tiberium was getting nowhere and that they didn't have much focus on what the final product would be, resulting in the project getting axed. Also, the story wasn't anything special either from what little was shown. Better it end up that way instead of another blight on the name of C&C.

Can't say I consider these the worst cancellations in gaming history, but they aure made me sad.

Devil May Cry: Dance of Sparda: Capcom registered the IP for the PSP way back in 2004, nothing came out of it, no details, nothing, but the title had Sparda on it, so it looked interesting enough for me.

Superman - Man of Steel: Hmm, maybe because it was shaping up to be the first "not-horrible" game for the Blue Boy Scout, apparently only Batman can shine these days.

The English release of Nanashi No Game, due to how utterly stupid the reason for not releasing it was (see the No Export for You entry on the page).

Oh, holy fuck, this.

Why the hell did they not try to work further on that Stormbirds game, the idea looked awesome!

Thirding how stupid that is. I've never even heard of the game before, but wow, that reason*

I'm nominating KOTOR 3. I like The Old Republic, but I would have preferred another single player RPG.

edited 29th Mar '12 7:01:35 AM by lrrose

I'd say Megaman Legends 3 just because of how fresh the wound is.

Nanashi No Game didn't get released because the focus groups where composed of the fratboy Cod-kiddie Michael Bay fan demographic? Lovely.

I am tagging this as a potential Complaining thread. Just for fair warning.

From a personal standpoint, I don't really lament any cancellations per se but I do lament the lack of sequels to some of my favorite franchises: Freespace and System Shock being two of them.

edited 29th Mar '12 7:13:34 AM by Fighteer