Five Cancelled Video Games That Deserved a Chance

Gotta wonder why Starcraft: Ghost literally became a ghost.

[shinoff2183]

Wish they did more then 5. There's a ton more out there.

[TheSenorCheese]

It's obviously something that can be revisited. But, yup, agree.

[darthv72]

Im surprised 1313 has not been revisited after the success of Fallen Order.

[shinoff2183]

Hope I will cause it sounded amazing.

[Knightofelemia]

I was always curious about Scalebound until it was scrapped.

[TheSenorCheese]

One of the titles we missed covering. But our guess? Uneasiness between Platinum and Microsoft.

[Godmars290]

You mean MS wanting a MP component for an obvious SP game.

[porkChop]

Platinum said they actually deserve a lot of the blame. Realistically both parties made mistakes. Platinum bit off more than they could chew at the time, and MS didn't quite understand how to just sit back and let the devs work their magic.

Hopefully the two can come together and try again because the game sounded really good.

[jznrpg]

If it was a single player game I think it would have had a better chance of coming out . Ms wanted it to be online co-op . Dragon games aren’t easy to make and making it co-op is even harder and to me that was the major factor of why it failed

[gangsta_red]

Not sure where people are getting their info that MS 'wanted' it to be co-op. From it's first teaser it was shown to have some type of co-op feature. It was probably pitched to MS as a multiplayer co-op game and Kamiya has gone on record saying he bit off a bit more than he could chew. You can definitely see elements on what they wanted to do with Scalebound in Bayonetta 3.

https://www.gematsu.com/202...

[Godmars290]

@gangsta_red:
Largely because the game existed before MS wanted it. Another is that more if not all Xbox titles have been online coop. Lastly, in in-game continuity, it made no sense to have customized versions of the same character popping up for boss fights. At least, as a hyped feature of the game, I've never heard explanation for it.

Regardless of what a dev, who wants to do business with MS so likely isn't going to badmouth them, says. Of course they're going to share blame in what a client wanted, even if that one thing was the exact thing making the project "more than he could chew".

[gangsta_red]

@godmars

"Largely because the game existed before MS wanted it."

Where are you getting this info from, because the story I've read is that Kamiya had the idea for a while and always wanted to make it but ultimately went with Bayonetta. He then pitched the idea to MS and then started to develop it. There may have been ideas for features from in other games that may have found there way to Scalbound, but Scalebound was not created beforehand.

"Another is that more if not all Xbox titles have been online coop."

That may be true for most MS games but that still doesn't mean it was mandated by MS for Platinum to do. And even if it was, Platinum agreed to do it, there wasn't a surprise by MS that they needed to add multiplayer halfway through development. That is not how third party development works, both parties agree through signed contracts beforehand what's expected with milestone deliverables.

"..it made no sense to have customized versions of the same character popping up for boss fights."

Not sure what you're not understanding, but there were customized versions of different players coming to help for boss fight. Maybe there was a mechanic to have characters equip different gear, the same type of features that is pretty standard found in multiple games of its type.

"Of course they're going to share blame in what a client wanted, even if that one thing was the exact thing making the project "more than he could chew"."

Kamiyah has never held back his opinions, he's been extremely outspoken in the past. Enough years has gone by for him to have told even a fraction of what you think might have happened and still not him or anyone from Platinum, from recent employees to any ex employee has said anything of what you are claiming.

[PhillyDillyDee]

1313 still hurts

[ZwVw]

Prey 2

[TheSenorCheese]

Oh, man, another one.

[mynameisBlade]

Heroes of the Storm deserved so much better... I'd prefer to play as every single classic Blizzard character over anything League or Dota could ever make.. I honestly wish HotS went the SMITE route. I think the characters/game play never made as big of an impact as it could've if the camera was 3rd person and you could feel the hits and power while in 3rd person. Hell even just the option to have it BOTH ways would've been something new. Seeing the Lich King and Diablo get rag dolled especially from an RTS perspective has always been laughably embarrassing and the game being too team orientated just sentenced it to death.

Being able to carry a team is one of the best parts about games like that. Not to mention Blizzard was a millennia late to the party with this type of game that spawned out of one of their own classic games in the first place...WC3.. Irony is a truly brutal enemy..

[-Foxtrot]

Eight Days

The early footage looked decent and I really want a buddy cop third person shooter in the style of Lethal Weapon

[richardmmorales]

For me it would have to be Mistwalker's Cry On. Was suppose to be the 3rd game for Xbox360 after Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

[shinoff2183]

Interesting Richard. I may have heard of this but don't remember. I personally enjoyed blue dragon take on the old school jrpg more then lost odyssey. I enjoyed lost but the level scaling of enemies killed it for me.

[richardmmorales]

There was very little known about the game when it was cancelled. That video was only released by Hironobu Sakaguchi (founder of Mistlkwalker and creator of Final Fantasy), years after it was cancelled. Personally I really enjoyed both but I think I enjoyed Losy Odssey more than Blue Dragon. I recall missing an item in Blue Dragon that can only be bought at a shop at a certain point in the game. and it causing me not to get the achievement for having acquired all items. Thankfully I was able to get it after I beat the game later on by doing New Game+. Starting the game over with everything intact.

[BandarHub]

yes, please. I often go back at look at that trailer.
It would have been great if they developed that game after the last story.

But I think that the market was changing at that time and the iphone's app store gaining popularity. Sakaguchi decided to shift focus on small titles and phones instead, not knowing that it was a futile endeavour. It was also at a period when leadership was changing at Xbox as people like Peter Moore left and were replaced by Don Mattrick. Don Mattrick had nothing to do with Japan so he did not even bother to salvage a relationship with Mistwalker, a studio that Microsoft Funded.
But at the same time Sakaguchi found it frustrating to work on a big game like Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon and Cry on at same time.
I believe that if they thought about making that game today would be successful.

I also 100% believe that Gaming Journalists have played a big role into killing JRPG in the console market. The way that they were treating Japanese games was astoundingly bad. Lower scores because it was a game that had certain archetypes of characters. They completely mistook the idea of a hero's journey and called it generic.
They dissuaded many JRPG developers who when on to create games for the Wii and the 3ds.

[jznrpg]

Agent and Silent Hills are the two I wanted the most . If Scalebounf wasn’t online co-op and was single player I would have had interest in it too

[MadLad]

MegaMan Legends 3.

[shinoff2183]

Ml3. Great choice.

[MadLad]

It really is a shame.

[TheSenorCheese]

Oof. That one hurts.

[rlow1]

StarCraft Ghost and 1313 would be my top choices.

[GoodGuy09]

Megaman Legends 3...man was that a huge bummer...

[itBourne]

Anyone else just see a broken website from 1999?

[SierraGuy]

Deep Down

[TheSenorCheese]

I always wonder what happened to that.

[chicken_in_the_corn]

Agent
Bully 2
The Getaway 3

[hotnickles]

I heard there was a sequel to shaolin monks called fire and ice with scorpion and sub zero. I don’t know how far it got if anywhere at all but I love the sound of it.

[TheSenorCheese]

I would've loved to have seen that. Shaolin is so underrated.

[OhReginald]

Starcraft ghost never went through cause blizzard only makes games for addicts lol.

My personal canceled game that hurt me the most was the FPS Tiberum game from EA set in the C&C3 world.

And another would be dead rush.

So many more.

[TheSenorCheese]

Oh, man, Dead Rush.

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

i specifically wouldn’t touch anything by blizz/act these days. no doubt they’d find some scumbag way to monetize ghost and ruin it anyways. best to just leave it as varporware and avoid them altogether.

[garos82]

Silent Hills still hurts me :(

[ChasterMies]

Half Life 2 Episode 2 came out in 2007. Just sayin’.

[MadLad]

It blows my mind they haven't just outsourced "episode 3" or a Half Life 3 to a reputable developer at this point.
Obviously they're not interested in working on it. Let someone, at least, give a proper ending to the game. If not even go forward to it.

I'm sure the guys behind Black Mesa would love to do so.

[bangoskank]

While not officially cancelled I think it's safe to say at this point that "Deep Down" will never be released. Looked interesting too.

[isarai]

Dude i have so many on my list.

Harker
Cypher Complex
Prey 2
Indiana Jones Staff of Kings
Project Offset
Scalebound
The Wall
PT/Silent Hills
Possession
The Getaway 3
Redwood Falls
Necessary Force

All really hurt when they were canned

[cthulhucultist]

Project Offset look indeed amazing!

[TheSenorCheese]

Good list!

[cthulhucultist]

Agartha - third person horror adventure for Dreamcast.

I was really sad when it was cancelled.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[Fearmonkey]

Project Copernicus - at least for me - was a disappointment as i really wanted to get into the lore of that game, written by R.A Salvatore.

Silent Hills of course

There were quite a few cool looking games over the years that never arrived, Killing Day was an example.

[Fearmonkey]

Project Copernicus - at least for me - was a disappointment as i really wanted to get into the lore of that game, written by R.A Salvatore.

Killing day was another, would make a good vr title.

[1nsomniac]

No Agent?

Remember that would have been when Rockstar was a good team too!

[Flakegriffin]

Psi-Ops 2 should’ve came to light. Including since the first one ended with “to be continued”.

RIP Midway

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Silent Hills was probably the best game reveal ever. It happened in real time, nobody even knew what we were playing, as a demo it was better than a lot of full horror games, and it turned out to be something we wanted for a long time. Then Konami happened.

[Einhander1971]

Star wars 1313 still looks amazing, needs to be resurrected for PS5.

[KingofGambling]

Eight Days and The Getaway