by thepickle
Some of these games have suffered very public meltdowns with endless delays, developer changes, and studio shut-downs. Others have just taken an obscenely long time to materialize. Some are success stories, others are tragedies, and a great number remain either up in the air or doomed for good.
Showing 1-10 of 26 items
Announced in 2008, and by all accounts this is still in development making it the longest known development cycle of all time.
The OG. Announced in 1997, eventually released in 2011, spanning nearly four console generations. Long development cycle was especially regrettable here: Duke's crass, referential humor worked well in the late 90s but was painfully outdated in 2011. The revelation of console shooters like the Halo series and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2 did not help either.
Announced in 2006 and never released. Hard to say when it was officially scrapped but the consensus is that the scope had eclipsed the episodic format, while other projects like Left 4 Dead drew attention away. At a certain point, the team at Valve felt the time for Episode Three had passed.
You could make a whole list of Kickstarter hells, but this one takes the cake. It is THE most expensive crowdfunded project of its kind, with an astonishing $174 million raised from its unveiling in 2012 to the beginning of early access in 2017. The game remains in early access, and has been subject to a number of legal challenges from spurned funders.
This one is pretty wild: the game was announced in ~1992~ and didn't see the light of day until 2021. It is the longest span between announcement and release for a video game of all time, but development was not continuous. The game was scrapped in '94 then revisited in 2020, marking a 28 year, 81 days wait for the platformer that many reviewers felt was better left on the shelf.
First teased in 2007 then announced as a Playstation 3 exclusive in 2009. Was not heard from again, though Take Two Interactive renewed its trademark for the title in 2013 and again in 2017. In 2018, the trademark was abandoned, and in 2021 the game was officially removed from Rockstar's site. Rockstar North director Obbe Vermeij claimed the development team was incorporated into the GTA V effort (more on that later), effectively explaining its cancellation.
Lead developer Fumito Ueda began conceptualizing a follow-up to Shadow of Colossus after its completion in 2005, with the work officially starting by 2007. It was announced as a PS3 exclusive at E3 2009. Sony execs were consistently worried about slow progress on the project, and it failed to make its planned 2011 release date. Ueda's departure from Sony that year, coupled with a lack of updates, led many to lose hope the game would ever be released. Behind the scenes, The Last Guardian was being overhauled for release on the PS4. It would be re-unveiled at E3 2015 after years of being conspicuously MIA at Sony's annual presser, and released the following year to positive reviews but disappointing sales.
Ohh, Too Human. A game remembered for spawning one of the greatest videos in Giant Bomb history and little else. It was announced in 1999 for the PlayStation, then wound up being developed as a GameCube exclusive following Silicon Knight's deal with Nintendo. The company delivered two titles for the 'Cube and was mum on Too Human until revealing in 2005 it was now an Xbox 360 exclusive, set to be the first in a trilogy. Development efforts were further stymied by a lawsuit with Epic over the Unreal Engine. Too Human finally dropped in '08 with a thud. Plans for a trilogy were scrapped. Denis Dyack, the company's outspoken president, went on to be part of a Kickstarter "vaporware" project, a spiritual successor to the beloved Eternal Darkness titled "Shadows of the Eternal" that was canned.
First announced in 2012, with a teaser trailer dropping a year later. Work on Cyberpunk 2077 was renewed following The Witcher 3's release in 2016, when CD Projekt upgraded the game to its REDengine 4. A release date of April 16, 2020 was announced by Keanu Reeves at E3 in 2019 but the game suffered three delays, including one after it had already "gone gold." It was released on December 10, 2020, to a mixed-at-best reception from critics and fans. Even with its long gestation period, the game's litany of technical issues had people feeling it was rushed out.
The first Dead Island is itself a candidate for this list after suffering a number of delays from its announcement in 2006 to release in 2011. Dead Island 2 spent nine years in that post-announcement, pre-release limbo. A telltale sign of development hell is changing studios; Dead Island 2 had at least four.