Five Most Disappointing Cancellations - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 23 July 2011 / 12,735 Views

Five Most Disappointing Cancellations

Recently, the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 reminded us the harsh truth of the video game industry – Like any other business, it all comes down to money. If a companies' market research finds that a title won't make a dime, it's hard to justify creating software, even if your most die-hard fans want it. There are other factors, but every single one traces back to the green paper we all so desire. It's not uncommon to see titles and come and go before even reaching a retail release, but some are more disappointing than others when they don't hit. We look at some of gaming's pasts most devastating cancellations.

Shenmue III

Alright, you knew this was coming so let's go ahead and get this out of the way. Shenmue III, the III sub title imply it would be the sequel to Shenmue II. Instead, Shenmue II was followed up by absolutely nothing. The title was confirmed and canceled multiple times over the last ten years. And with recent comments from Yu Suzuki suggesting that there is a possibility for Shenmue III, fans may have their hopes slightly elevated at the moment. But considering the consistent off and on nature of the development of the title, I'd wait until we actually see some solid signs of a revival. Some may consider it to be one of gaming's largest disappointments. But what may be a bigger disappointment is...

Shenmue Online

It's not that Shenmue Online is more desired than Shenmue III, but Shenmue Online's cancellation was more disappointing in the fact that it was our best shot at finishing the Shenmue series. The title was an massively mutliplayer online title, so over time it could be updated with expansion packs, quests, missions etc. Why pour tons of money into a couple of titles to wrap up the story when you can make one title that can play through the whole story? Of course, the title never came to surface. As of today the title is in a pending state. But there is shred of hope for Shenmue fans, as a social game called Shenmue City is in the works that may further the plot.

Star Fox 2

Star Fox 2's initial cancellation may have just seemed like a natural step as Nintendo moved from the Super Nintendo to the Nintendo 64. Much of what went in Star Fox 2 found its way to Star Fox 64. But it wouldn't be until a decade later that we would truly understand how painful Star Fox 2's cancellation was. What makes it painful is the fact that the game was finished. Why pull the plug? Because Miyamoto didn't want to release a graphically inferior 3D title so close to, what was believed to be, the Nintendo 64's launch at the time. The Nintendo 64 eventually ended up seeing significant delays anyways, so the title was sacrificed for nothing. We would love to eventually see the title for a Virtual Console release, but we've been asking for that since the service went live in 2006.

StarCraft Ghost

Blizzard is a busy company that demands perfection when releasing titles. Because of that, they have extremely lengthy development cycles, but, in most cases, it is all worth it in the end. StarCraft Ghost, like many of their other titles, went through a long development process. The difference here is that the final product never emerged. After being delayed three years past its original promised release window, the title was shelved to focus on the ever growing World of Warcraft. What makes the title such a painful loss is the anticipation of seeing Blizzard step into the third person shooter and stealth action genre. It is always exciting to see what a talented developer can bring forward in unfamiliar territory. Technically, the title is still suspended. But considering World of Warcraft is still pushing strong, Diablo III is getting somewhat close to release and Blizzard has more work to do on StarCraft II, it's hard to see when Blizzard will ever have time for this project in the foreseeable future.

Sonic Xtreme

Looking back at it today, Sonic Xtreme didn't look very promising. At the time most developers were still experimenting with early 3D gameplay, and many titles were hit and miss. And while we will never know how Sonic Xtreme would have turned out, from today's standpoint, it looked like a surefire miss. The title used a strange fisheye lens style camera that, really, just didn't seem to make all that much sense, especially in a Sonic title. Either way, the title's cancellation wasn't so much the disappointing factor. It was that the series was taking forever to make its way onto the SEGA Saturn. And by 1997, the title was officially canned and the Saturn never received a its full-fledged 3D Sonic title.

Duke Nukem Forever brought about some encouragement that, even if a title disappears or get in some development trouble, there's always a chance it will make a comeback. In Duke Nukem's case, that outcome was unfortunately not so great, but it is a little bit encouraging for fans of these titles, and even Mega Man Legends 3, that they may one day see their most anticipated titles of the past arise. Although, it's a once in a blue moon occurrence, so I wouldn't start saving up for Shenmue III just yet. And I think it's a little too late for SEGA to release an original SEGA Saturn Sonic title.

Recently, the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 reminded us the harsh truth of the video game industry – Like any other business, it all comes down to money. If a companies' market research finds that a title won't make a dime, it's hard to justify creating software, even if your most die-hard fans want it. There are other factors, but every single one traces back to the green paper we all so desire. It's not uncommon to see titles and come and go before even reaching a retail release, but some are more disappointing than others when they don't hit. We look at some of gaming's pasts most devastating cancellations.

Shenmue III

Alright, you knew this was coming so let's go ahead and get this out of the way. Shenmue III, the third roman numeral implied it would be the sequel to Shenmue II. Instead, Shenmue II was followed up by absolutely nothing. The title was confirmed and canceled multiple times over the last ten years. And with recent comments from Yu Suzuki suggesting that there is a possibility for Shenmue III, fans may have their hopes slightly elevated at the moment. But considering the consistent off and on nature of the development of the title, I'd wait until we actually see some solid signs of a revival. Some may consider it to be one of gaming's largest disappointments. But what may be a bigger disappointment is...

Shenmue Online

It's not that Shenmue Online is more desired than Shenmue III, but Shenmue Online's cancellation was more disappointing in the fact that it was our best shot at finishing the Shenmue series. The title was an massively mutliplayer online title, so over time it could be updated with expansion packs, quests, missions etc. Why pour tons of money into a couple of titles to wrap up the story when you can make one title that can play through the whole story? Of course, the title never came to surface. As of today the title is in a pending state. But there is shred of hope for Shenmue fans, as a social game called Shenmue City is in the works that may further the plot.

Star Fox 2

Starfox 2

Star Fox 2's initial cancellation may have just seemed like a natural step as Nintendo moved from the Super Nintendo to the Nintendo 64. Much of what went in Star Fox 2 found its way to Star Fox 64. But it wouldn't be until a decade later that we would truly understand how painful Star Fox 2's cancellation was. What makes it painful is the fact that the game was finished. Why pull the plug? Miyamoto didn't want to release a graphically inferior 3D title so close to, what was believed to be, the Nintendo 64's launch at the time. The Nintendo 64 eventually ended up seeing significant delays anyways, so the title was sacrificed for nothing. We would love to eventually see the title for a Virtual Console release, but we've been asking for that since the service went live in 2006.

StarCraft Ghost

Blizzard is a busy company that demands perfection when releasing titles. Because of that, they have extremely lengthy development cycles, but, in most cases, it is all worth it in the end. StarCraft Ghost, like many of their other titles, went through a long development process. The difference here is that the final product never emerged. After being delayed three years past its original promised release window, the title was shelved to focus on the ever growing World of Warcraft. What makes the title such a painful loss is the anticipation of seeing Blizzard step into the third person shooter and stealth action genre. It is always exciting to see what a talented developer can bring forward in unfamiliar territory. Technically, the title is still suspended. But considering World of Warcraft is still pushing strong, Diablo III is getting somewhat close to release and Blizzard has more work to do on StarCraft II, it's hard to see when Blizzard will ever have time for this project in the foreseeable future.

Sonic Xtreme

Looking back at it today, Sonic Xtreme didn't look very promising. At the time most developers were still experimenting with early 3D gameplay, and many titles were hit and miss. And while we will never know how Sonic Xtreme would have turned out, from today's standpoint, it looked like a surefire miss. The title used a strange fisheye lens style camera that, really, just didn't seem to make all that much sense, especially in a Sonic title. Either way, the title's cancellation wasn't so much the disappointing factor. It was that the series was taking forever to make its way onto the SEGA Saturn. And by 1997, the title was officially canned and the Saturn never received a its full-fledged 3D Sonic title.

Duke Nukem Forever brought about some encouragement that, even if a title disappears or get in some development trouble, there's always a chance it will make a comeback. In Duke Nukem's case, that outcome was unfortunately not so great, but it is a little bit encouraging for fans of these titles, and even Mega Man Legends 3, that they may one day see their most anticipated titles of the past arise. Although, it's a once in a blue moon occurrence, so I wouldn't start saving up for Shenmue III just yet. And I think it's a little too late for SEGA to release an original SEGA Saturn Sonic title.

60 Comments

starbruin (on 23 July 2011)

Definitely, Shenmue III is probably the one from the list that I was most disappointed to see get canceled

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Jumpin (on 24 July 2011)

Earthbound 64
Chrono Break
Skies of Arcadia 2

are the three that immediately come to mind for me.

RiksK15 (on 23 July 2011)

I remember how excited for Starcraft Ghost I once was. With Starcraft being my favourite RTS, but action and stealth being my favourite genre at the time, it was very disappointing that Ghost never saw the daylight!

I am still hoping for Starcraft Ghost to be released someday!

Teo (on 23 July 2011)

I would put "JRPGs for the PS3" in the list, and FF12-2 codenamed "Fortress"

blkfish92 (on 23 July 2011)

Soo Megaman Legends 3 didn't make the list?

AFFLICTION (on 23 July 2011)

I would LOVE to see Shenmue return!!! But first I have a question do you know where sailors hang out?

theARTIST0017 (on 24 July 2011)

Too bad Virtual Console almost never takes advantage of some of these unreleased titles like Star Fox 2

NoirSon (on 24 July 2011)

Mother/Earthbound 64 gets no love?

While I hear Mother 3 was great, myself and many others won't ever get to play it unless released on the portable VC.

yo_john117 (on 23 July 2011)

Man I haven't played any of those series :S

yo_john117 yo_john117 (on 23 July 2011)

Well except Starcraft of course

usrevenge (on 23 July 2011)

SC ghost could be amazing, hope it comes back

sethnintendo (on 23 July 2011)

Starcraft Ghost was painful to see cancelled. It was looking like it was going to be a very nice game and I really wanted it for the GC.

forest-spirit sethnintendo (on 24 July 2011)

Agreed. The cancellation of Ghost still hurts. :-(

thetonestarr (on 24 July 2011)

Most disappointing non-cancellations: (1) Duke Nukem Forever

NightDragon83 thetonestarr (on 24 July 2011)

Add Too Human and Daikatana to that list!

Robbie2010 (on 24 July 2011)

Yawn, many of these aren't missed, and where is ML3????

scorptile (on 24 July 2011)

mine was final fantasy 7 for the N64, i followed it closely then they scrapped the idea and went with the ps one version. the game at the time looked awesome and was running solely on the system and not off cgi video off a disc. so yeah that was a dissapointment for me

kupomogli scorptile (on 25 July 2011)

There was no FF7 on the N64. There was a tech demo of FF6 on the N64 showing off the N64s graphical capabilities. There was nothing to follow because it was released as a playable tech demo and that's it.

The characters actually looked like the in battle characters on the original Wild ARMs. Worse actually.

What was it called. Final Fantasy 6 The Interactive CG Game. So it wasn't even what the in game graphics would have been. It was Square Enix pushing the systems graphics to the limit and eating up huge amounts of data. The game would be extremely short on the N64 if a Final Fantasy was ever released at a scale of what Squaresoft wanted.

jacks81x (on 23 July 2011)

oops...I meant Chrono Break...

Darc Requiem (on 23 July 2011)

@Jacks81x

Unfortunately that game was released....

TheBardsSong (on 26 July 2011)

Biggest to me is Mother 3 for the N64.

Simulacrum (on 25 July 2011)

1:DMC for Psp was cancelled.. :(

krizalidzero (on 25 July 2011)

This DreamCast Castlevania game in which Sonia was the main character D:

Rawnchie14 (on 25 July 2011)

I was pretty devastated when Cry On was cancelled. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. Chrono Break's cancellation also - sucked.

austin2359 (on 25 July 2011)

When point-and-click and text adventure game company Sierra went out of business, a lot of expected franchises were canceled.

Monges79 (on 24 July 2011)

I'm sorry, I could care less about any of these games. Probably like most gamers. Don't care if I get hate!

sethnintendo Monges79 (on 25 July 2011)

You might get hate from the grammar police. They will tell you that you should have used couldn't care less.

kupomogli Monges79 (on 25 July 2011)

"I couldn't care less" means he doesn't care about the game and couldn't care any less. "I could care less" means that it's possible for him to care less about the games in question but he doesn't, he cares somewhat. :P

kupomogli (on 23 July 2011)

Shenmue 3 belongs on the list but that's about it.

The Magic of Scheherazade 2 is more of a disappointing release than any other on here. On an early Nintendo Power "Next month: The Magic of Scheherazade 2." There was nothing about the game in next months issue. Also in some other game magazines at the time there were single page ads for the game, so it must have been extremely close to completion.