10 Game Cancellations You Probably Weren’t Aware Of

1. AionGuard






Described as an action
strategy game, AionGuard was set to take players around the world
capturing a variety of locales dominated by mythological creatures. In
development at Avalanche Studios, it would have been interesting to see
the Just Cause developers taking on something a little more obviously in
the realms of fantasy. Problems occurred when the initial World War 1
setting was changed in favour of a more easily managed science fiction
setting, in turn changed to fantasy to prevent a clash with other games
in publisher Eidos' catalogue. Still, Avalanche have since re-acquired
the rights to AionGuard, so we may see it again in the future.

It
would be an understatement to describe making games as a high stakes
business. Even at the lower levels of game development, the process
takes a lot of time and a lot of capital to reach fruition and, on
account of the sheer amount of investment required, plenty of
development projects encounter problems at some point down the line. The
most well known of these catastrophes is the phenomenon of vapourware,
whereby an immensely hyped game receives continued delays until it is
eventually cancelled.

A few examples come to mind, the most obvious being the
infamous Duke Nukem Forever. It may have actually reached completion,
but its low quality is now a running joke to most. What you may not know
is how many games get cut before they ever get off the ground. Whether
it was in the early stages of development or just during the planning
stages, we’ve found ten interesting cancellations for Xbox 360 and PS3
games that you might not have heard about.

Obscure D, A small scale downloadable game in development for XBLA, PSN, PC and
3DS, Obscure D is immediately notable for taking on the age old
tradition of the survival horror genre, but transplanting it onto the 2D
sidescroller. Taking place between the events of Obscure and Obscure 2,
the continuation of this quirky horror series was to see the return of
plenty of characters from the two previous titles in the series along
with the co-op gameplay the series was known for.

Gotham By Gaslight

DC made a one off comic designed to be part of their Elseworlds series; a
comic sequence that moved popular DC heroes into alternate historical
periods. The initial comic was Gotham by Gaslight, popping the Dark
Knight into a Steampunk European locale in 1889. An initial prototype
for a game based on the graphic novel was in development at Day 1
Studios, but it sadly never saw the light of day.


Spyro's Kingdom


Following on from The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, Spyro's
Kingdom was set to be an MMORPG spin-off for the series. The prototype
was taken to Activision, but they rejected it in favour of the
Skylanders series. Granted, Skylanders has made them a pretty penny, but
the idea of being able to make your own dragon and quest in the Spyro
world is kind of awesome. It's a real shame this one got the axe.


Gears of War: Exile


Originally set for announcement at E3 2011, the Kinect only Gears of
War: Exile never showed up, and vanished without a trace soon after.
Logos showed up to prove it existed once, but little else is available
to give us info on what could have been. The rumours were that the game
was an on-rails take on the Epic developed shooter, controlled entirely
through bodily motion. If it was anything like Fable: The Journey it's
probably a good thing it got cancelled.

Streets of Rage Reboot



Though a fairly standard brawler, even at the time, Streets of Rage just
ticked all the boxes, to the point that it holds a special place in
most of our hearts. The nostalgia rating is through the roof with SoR,
to the point where it genuinely saddens me to here a reboot was
cancelled, not once, but twice! That said, the two were to be developed
by Grin (of Wanted and Terminator Salvation infamy) and Crackdown 2
developer Ruffian Games respectively. Neither of these developers
immediately scream “quality reboot,” so maybe it was destiny that these
two projects never made it out of the door.


Zodiac Assassin


Originally in development at Sony's Cambridge wing, Zodiac Assassin was
set to be a Kill-Bill-esque adventure featuring a female assassin. The
use of stealth and disguises doesn't exactly sound like original
gameplay design, but the decision to base at least one part of the game
during the day of the dead in Mexico immediately whets the level design
whistle. Sony scrapped the project in favour of acquiring Heavenly
Sword, but who knows how ZA may have turned out if it was allowed to be
finished.

High School Heroes

In development at the then new Freedom Factory Games, High School Heroes
saw players lead a rebellion on a distant planet as one of three
playable superheroes. Though concept art looks sketchy, the high school
setting is underused in games, making High School Heroes an interesting
prospect. Despite this, the developer couldn't find any publisher
interest, resulting in the project's inevitable demise.


Strider Reboot

Before developer Grin went in to bankruptcy it seemed pretty weighed
down by reboots. The company was supposedly working on a Streets of Rage
reboot mentioned above, but they were also working on bringing Strider
back to the masses. Though often forgotten, Strider was one of the most
intense 2D platformers around when it launched back in 1989, so a reboot
would have certainly been welcome. Apparently Strider was dropped after
the poor Bionic Commando remake in 2009, no doubt because BC was pretty
awful and sold badly.

Animal Wars

Factor 5 signed a multi-game deal with Sony at the dawn of the PS3 and
one of these exclusives was set to be the now absent Animal Wars. With a
World War 2 setting that featured animals as playable characters, it
was said that the gameplay was rather similar to Warhawk. Imagining
Warhawk mixed with the hilarity of a Dino D-Day style setting sounds
like a pretty great combo, so it's a shame this was cancelled in favour
of the awfully shite Lair