Video game development is a difficult process and sometimes even the most promising games end up fading into dust. I just hate it when a teaser trailer or gameplay footage gets me all hyped up and not long after that the developers pull the plug on it in the last minute. It’s a shame to see so many millions of manpower hours go to waste, and the worst part is that we won’t get the chance to play them.

Get out your tissues, it’s time to see 15 cancelled video games that broke gamers hearts!

TOP 15 CANCELLED VIDEO GAMES

15. Metallica: The Game

I’ll start the top with a weird one, a driving game inspired by the famous rock band Metallica. Judging by the video, I think it was supposed to be some sort of competitive racing game with lots of weapons and a Mad Max touch.

14. Dirty Harry

I know what you’re thinking… who wouldn’t want to play a game in which Clint Eastwood’s famous Harry Callahan is the main character? Back in 2007 it almost happened, with Clint Eastwood voicing the character in the game. Sadly, after the Foundation 9 studio closed, the game’s future faded into dust. I’m still wondering why a Dirty Harry game hasn’t been picked up by a studio yet.

13. Six Days in Fallujah

Developed by Konami, Six Day in Fallujah was supposed to be a tactical shooter based on the real events from the Irak war. It was described as “survival horror” but only in the sense that the player was exposed to the horror of war. After a massive public outrage, Konami quietly cancelled the game.

12. Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned

Isn’t it sad that after someone finally makes an adaptation of the famous Pirates of the Caraibbean franchise and even tough it looks like it was worth playing, it ends up being shelved? The screenshots were looking gorgeous, the ship-to-ship combat was intriguing and it even had a morality system. The game was cancelled in October 2010 and I have no idea why. I don’t know anyone who isn’t willing to buy a pirate-themed RPG.

11. Division 9

The zombie apocalypse at its best. Division 9, developed by Irrational Games, was going to involve groups of survivors in a zombie infested world. Players were supposed to secure locations, look for supplies and ammo, and of course others survivors. Unfortunately the game was shelved right after the studio was purchased by Take-Two.

10. The Lord of the Rings: White Council

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor wasn’t the only promising action RPG based on Lord of the Rings. The game was set in a massive world where players could choose to explore Middle-earth as a human, dwarf, elf or hobbit. EA cancelled the game and gave us no reason. Why EA? Why?

9. inSane

THQ and Guillermo del Toro were supposed to give us a survival horror game with a story torn straight from del Toro’s dark imagination. In 2010 when the game was announced, del Toro said:

With this new series of video games, I want to take players to a place they have never seen before.

8. Command & Conquer: Tiberium

There are a lot of C&C games cancelled by EA but the most significant of all is definitely Tiberium. A FPS set in the astonishing C&C universe could have marked the start of a beautiful series of action based games. Announced in 2008, Tiberium was cancelled a few month later, in September and the given reason was that it failed to meet “the quality standards set by the development team and the EA Games label“. If you ask me, it doesn’t look that bad.

7. Thrill Kill

This game was so violent that EA refused to release it even though it was nearly 100% complete. Good news is the even though it didn’t make it to the game shop shelves, the developers still decided to leak the near completed version online. Don’t ask me where you can download the game from, I have no intention to look it up. I might be tempted to play it.

6. B.C.

B.C., if it was released, would have put you in a prehistoric world, controlling tribe of cavemen and help them evolve and survive against rival tribes, natural dangers and of course dinosaurs. You could use anything you see as a weapon and even poison the rival tribes with plants and stuff. Sounds cool, huh? Too bad we’ll never get to play it.

5. Aliens: Crucible

In 2010 Sega had to choose between 2 Aliens games, Aliens: Crucible and Aliens: Colonial Marines. You already know which game was chosen and released and the rest is just depressing history.

4. Eight Days

The first trailer for Eight Days was shown at E3 2005 and got everyone hyped up. The game’s story was to take place over 8 days in the Arizona desert and by looks of the trailer it was action packed. However there were some rumors that the trailer wasn’t actual gameplay footage and just a pre-rendered trailer and soon after that the project got shut down.

3. Streets of Rage

I assume you all remember 16-bit brawler, Street Rage. Well, in 2012, the makers of Crackdown 2 were working on a remastered version of Street Rage. A video showing some gameplay footage was posted on YouTube by the developers and looked quite promising but a few months later Sega announced that they’ll drop the project and focus on some of their most recognisable franchises, like Sonic the Hedgehog.

2. Starcraft Ghost

A FPS game set in the Starcraft universe would’ve been sooooooo cool! Ghost is so legendary you probably already know the whole story. It spent 4 years in development and in early 2006 Blizzard pulled the plug on it.

1. Star Wars 1313

This game is probably my deepest regret in the gaming industry. It looks so awesome I just can’t understand why the developers dropped it. When Disney bought LucasFilm, LucasArts studio was shut down and all its project terminated. EA purchased the rights for the Star Wars games so there’s still a chance we’ll get to see a polished Star Wars 1313, sometime this century I hope.