Most Anticipated Games Stuck in Development Hell

While some games are developed in a couple of years, others have to wait for decades. Moreover, they often come out outdated and fail in sales. But there are situations when such projects do not even make it to release. Our article is devoted to such examples.

Not all of the developers' plans can be realized in the format of a video game. Even a detailed design document, with a ready-made script and well-thought-out mechanics, does not guarantee anything. The authors may encounter publishers who will make their own edits, incompetent programmers, and much more. There are often cases when an unfinished game is taken away from the developers and given to another team.

As a result, it takes longer than planned to bring the project to fruition. Moreover, this directly affects its budget, because all employees must receive a regular salary. Not all publishers are ready to put up with this state of affairs. For example, in May 2025, Electronic Arts canceled the development of Marvel's Black Panther and closed the Cliffhanger Games studio that was working on it. According to Jason Schreier, the reason is the protracted pre-production, which took four years. During this time, the team never started full-fledged development.

But sometimes large companies are ready to invest more and more money, just to end up with a project that can at least partially recoup the costs. Sometimes even with this approach, you get a great game, as was the case with Resident Evil 4. But more often we get outdated or simply uninteresting projects in the spirit of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Skull & Bones and Duke Nukem Forever.

However, at least you can buy them, launch them and play them. We will analyze those creations that never got out of production hell. Some of them have already been canceled, others may still be released in the near future. However, their fate seems unclear.

The original Beyond Good & Evil combined action, stealth, puzzles and driving your own vehicle. For 2003, such a hybrid of genres seemed unusual. In addition, the events were seasoned with a good plot. The author of the idea and game designer Michel Ancel wrote the script for the second and third parts in advance. In the mid-2000s, Ubisoft was actively releasing sequels for its games, but it was in no hurry with this particular project.

The announcement of the sequel took place in 2008. However, the active production stage began only 8 years later. Fans were pleased that the game was being developed by the same team that made the original. However, at that time, a struggle was unfolding within Ubisoft. According to screenwriter and author Michel Ancel, the management argued with his decisions, for example, procedurally generated dungeons instead of a full-fledged space adventure. And the managers themselves could not agree with each other. And although Ancel left Ubisoft in 2020, Beyond Good & Evil 2 has not been released yet. It does not even have an exact release date. At the time of writing, it has already been in development for 15 years, which can be considered a record for the gaming industry.

After GTA 3, every Rockstar project has attracted increased attention. An example is the shooter Agent. Its development began in 2002, and the official announcement took place in 2008. Moreover, the game was supposed to be released exclusively on PlayStation 3.

Its action took place in Cairo and Washington during the Cold War. The key themes of the plot are political assassinations, espionage and counterintelligence. The main emphasis was on a strong script, cinematography and staged moments, for example, an attempt to escape from a helicopter under a hail of bullets. The game was supposed to have an open world.

The game was originally planned for release in 2010. But even three years later, it had not been released. Former Rockstar North artist Darren Charles Hatton claimed that the team that worked on Agent was tasked with helping with the development of GTA 5. But time passed, and by 2016, releasing a PS3 exclusive was no longer reasonable.

Despite this, Take-Two extended the rights to the game. Apparently, there were still plans to release it, albeit on other platforms. Moreover, concept art appeared in 2017. However, a year later, the Agent trademark was abandoned. And its official website translate to the Rockstar page. Moreover, Agent is no longer on the company's list of games.

The remake of the first chapter of the Prince of Persia sand trilogy may still be released. The release date is set for 2026. However, given the difficulties that Ubisoft is currently facing, the project may well be canceled. In addition, it has already survived production hell.

The announcement of the re-release of The Sands of Time took place in 2020, and it was supposed to be released in 2021. However, the trailer caused a negative reaction from fans. They can be understood, because even from the production video it was clear that the project was outdated. After Resident Evil 2 (2019), the requirements for remakes have increased significantly. And Ubisoft not only postponed the release date, but also changed the developer — instead of the Indian divisions of the company, a Canadian team from Montreal took on the new version of The Sands of Time.

Interesting fact: the original "Sands of Time" was ready in two years, and even five years were not enough for the remake.

Each numbered game in the Final Fantasy series takes place in a separate universe. At the same time, the main project can receive sequels, prequels and spin-offs. Bright examples are Final Fantasy 13-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13, which expand the world of the thirteenth part. However, it was originally planned to release Final Fantasy Versus 13.

The first information about this video game appeared in 2006, when it was in pre-production. Judging by the videos, its interface and gameplay were generally reminiscent of what we saw in the Kingdom Hearts series. Each character was planned to have their own combat system, and land and air transport were used for movement.

Like Agent, which we talked about above, Versus 13 was supposed to be a PS3 exclusive. However, work on it was delayed due to the release of the "main" thirteenth part. Then the engine had to be written anew, because the technologies that were already there could not cope with the local open world. By 2011, it became clear that the game would be released only in a couple of years, and by that time the life cycle of the PlayStation 3 would come to an end. A year later, it was announced that the project would appear on PS4 and Xbox One, but already under the name Final Fantasy 15. It uses the developments of Versus 13, but, in fact, this is a different part, the action of which unfolded in a new universe.

In the mid-2000s, the developers experimented with an episodic system of game distribution. Thus, the sequel Half-Life 2 was divided into three series. Valve representatives claimed that this way they would be able to implement new mechanics and gameplay solutions faster. But they only managed to release two episodes. Information about the third was limited to rumors, leaks of scripts and concept art, and various interviews with Valve representatives for a long time. For example, in 2008 it was claimed that Episode Three would be longer than the first two, and in March 2010, Gabe Newell spoke about his desire to bring fear back to the Half-Life series. But a year later, he announced his rejection of the idea of breaking up games into episodes. Apparently, by that time, development had stopped.

If we analyze all the statements made by the Half-Life developers, we can conclude that Valve did not have any interesting ideas that could be implemented in the third episode. And they did not want to release a simple set of additional levels with winter locations. In addition, we are talking about an add-on to the 2004 game, which could not be delayed — technology has gone far ahead.

With Half-Life 3, the situation is more ambiguous. Rumors periodically surface that it is almost ready and an official announcement will follow very soon. However, there has been no announcement until now. Valve maintains radio silence, but periodically the developers state that new games are constantly being made within the company's walls. And among them, there is probably a third Half-Life. Most likely, we will see a sequel to the VR-exclusive Half-Life: Alyx, where the ending of Episode Two was changed. Let us recall that as a result, Eli Vance was saved, and his daughter disappeared.

The first «The Witcher» (The Witcher) remained a PC exclusive. However, in 2009, CD Projekt RED planned to release the game on current consoles. The main team was already working on the second part by that time, so the re-release of the original for PS3 and Xbox 360 was entrusted to the Frenchstudio WideScreen Games.

In fact, this is not a simple port, but a remake. It was planned to transfer the game to a new engine, change the character models, redesign the interface and the leveling system, make boss battles more interesting, and, of course, adapt the controls for gamepads. And after the release, the project was supposed to receive several story DLCs.

The official announcement took place on December 8, 2008, but the real work on Rise of the White Wolf began earlier. However, it encountered difficulties with the publisher, Atari, who set unacceptable conditions, and with the developers from WideScreen Games. The French demanded more and more money, missed all deadlines and simply could not cope with such a complex task as creating a large role-playing game for consoles. In addition, they were short of people, so they needed to increase the number of developers involved by hiring CD Projekt RED employees. But even in the best-case scenario, the game could be released in a year and a half, rather than in a few months as originally planned. Red couldn't afford such expenses. As a result, it was decided to cancel the project and focus all efforts on The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Were there any games whose release you never saw? Share your opinions in the comments!