00:00Game development is a high-budget gamble at the best of times. For every big-name disappointment
00:12or surprise breakout hit from nowhere, there is another, darker class of game, the one
00:17that never came out. History is littered with high-profile games that had all the hype and
00:22all the trailers, and then just never happened. Developers can games all the time, but usually
00:28in secret before announcing anything, so it's a rare breed of game that gets killed in full
00:33view of the public. So let's take a look at some of the most high-profile games that were
00:37never released, and dream about what could have been.
00:46Killing Day was a first-person shooter that would have been a next-gen powerhouse, intended
00:50to show what the then-unreleased PS3 could do. The trailer bowled people over with what,
00:56for the first time, were incredible lighting effects and destructible environments. However,
01:01the original 30-second CG trailer is pretty much all we ever got to see. If the game ever
01:06actually existed beyond that, nothing was ever shown again, and Killing Day was apparently
01:10officially cancelled early in development. Ubisoft did keep the name trademarked until
01:152016, giving fans some hope, but it ultimately expired.
01:24Just announced at Gamescom 2013, Fable Legends gameplay debuted at Microsoft's 2014 E3
01:30press conference, and couldn't have been further from what Fable fans were expecting
01:34or wanted. Instead of a next-gen version of the chicken-kicking RPG, Fable Legends delivered
01:40a 4-on-1 asymmetrical multiplayer game. It went into closed beta later in 2014, and by
01:45all accounts was actually fine, but neither fans or its own publisher seemed too excited
01:51about it, and it was ultimately cancelled in 2016. Not before it cost Microsoft an estimated
01:56£75 million, making it one of the most expensive cancelled games ever, that wasn't even made.
02:06Exclusives are a big deal for consoles, so when Sony announced in 2007 that a new Rockstar
02:11game was coming exclusively to PS3, it was a big win. Unfortunately, despite the fanfare
02:17of the announcement and prestige of the Grand Theft Auto developer, Agent became one of
02:21the famous white whales in gaming. Despite the big stage reveal and fuss, all we've
02:26ever seen since its E3 unveiling is the logo. A few screenshots have leaked out over the
02:30years, and for a long time Take-Two refused to say it had been cancelled. However, the
02:35United States Patent and Trademark Office declared the Agent trademark abandoned in
02:402018, and since 2021, the official Agent website redirects to Rockstar's website, with the
02:46game no longer being listed on its games page.
02:54Players loved the look of Scalebound when it was announced at E3 2014, and the game
02:58even had an extensive demo on the floor of a later Microsoft Press conference. But then
03:03the game skipped some shows, and then got delayed from 2016 to 2017, when it was eventually
03:09cancelled, without so much as a reason why. As an original IP from Platinum Games and
03:13famed Resident Evil and Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya, the unexpected cancellation
03:17of Scalebound was a real kick to the stomach.
03:26Star Wars is a series with a fanbase that makes almost any game a sure bet, but when
03:31Disney acquired the franchise from George Lucas in 2013, it meant developer LucasArts
03:35shut down, taking with it Star Wars 1313. It would have starred a young Boba Fett during
03:41the bounty hunter's early adventures, hunting down the galaxy's most wanted. The gameplay
03:45we got revealed a third person shooter filled with action, chases and big scripted set pieces,
03:51giving it all a very uncharted vibe. While the demo looked promising, 1313 was officially
03:56canned a year later, when LucasArts laid off the majority of its staff. Over the years
04:00we've seen scraps of gameplay and demos, and some concept work may have inspired scenes
04:05in the Mandalorian, but the game itself is deader than Luke's tauntaun sleeping bag.
04:12Prey 2 was officially unveiled at E3 in 2011, taking place after the 2006 Xbox 360 game,
04:20not the more recent Arkane Space Adventure. The ambitious sequel would have followed US
04:24Marine Killian Samuels, a human living among an array of alien races, hunting bounties
04:29and earning cash to survive. The reveal gameplay wowed audiences with incredible gadget powered
04:34gunplay and this ended up high on a lot of most wanted lists for years. Despite the hype,
04:39the game disappeared and Bethesda officially called it quits on Prey 2 in 2014. Eventually
04:43the name returned as a rebooted experience with Arkane Studios' 2017 Prey. Human Head's
04:49sequel still gets talked about though, and has taken on a near mythical status thanks
04:53to its gameplay and a twist ending that deserves a video all of its own.
05:04This is one of the most famous cancelled games of all time, first revealed in 2002 and not
05:09officially cancelled until 2014, making it one of the longest games to live in limbo
05:14before the axe fell. Given that Blizzard used to be known for only releasing games when
05:19they weren't done, rumours and hopes that this console based, shooter take on the tactical
05:23Starcraft world would still happen, and it persisted for over a decade. The game would
05:28have seen players control Nova, a stealth operative known as a ghost, as she fought
05:33and snuck her way through various sci-fi worlds. Development didn't go smoothly though,
05:38and the game missed its 2003 release, underwent numerous delays and even changed developers.
05:43It was relaunched at E3 2005, with a new 2006 release date that came and went. However Blizzard
05:49didn't officially finally confirm cancellation until 2014.
05:59As a victim of the Konami Kojima fallout, Silent Hills will fittingly forever haunt
06:03gamers with what could have been. Initially revealed via a mysterious playable teaser
06:08or PT to its friends, the game was only revealed once the secret ending was revealed the day
06:12after the demo was released. The hype instantly exploded when people discovered a new Silent
06:17Hill game from MGS director Hideo Kojima and horror film director Guillermo del Toro, that
06:22would star The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus. But this still didn't stop the game getting
06:26canned with extreme prejudice though when Kojima finally left Konami. Even a petition
06:30of nearly 200,000 fan signatures wasn't enough to save it.
06:34Now 10 years later, the rumour mill is still throwing out sparks as it turns. There was
06:39gossip Sony had bought the rights to let Kojima carry on, although currently he's rumoured
06:43to be working on a horror game called Overdose. While Konami allegedly has up to 3 different
06:48Silent Hill projects in the works, but whatever happens in the future, Silent Hills is forever
06:52trapped in the otherworld.
06:54So what cancelled game hurt you the most? You can tell us, we're all suffering here.
06:58Or is it something that isn't on this list that you can't let go of? Let us know in
07:02the comments below and stay with GamesRadar for games that will definitely, definitely
07:05come out. Probably.
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