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The Last Guardian is a stunning game, our reviewer called it “A modern marvel the world needs“, and I played the entire game with lots of tears involved. I am sure you know that the game took a very long time to make it to the PS4, as it was originally announced for PS3 back in 2009, after development began for it in 2007. The game was supposed to release in 2011, but it suddenly disappeared for a few years until it reappeared as a PS4 game in 2012.
Four years later and the game is alive and well. While playing through the game, I could not help but wonder just what other games are still stuck in limbo, or as I like to call it, development hell.
Beyond Good and Evil 2
After a massively successful release, of which spawned multiple remasters across platforms, Ubisoft was bound to work on a sequel to the original game. Well, they did, and they released a trailer to it back at Ubidays in 2008. The trailer showed off an older Pey’j, and Jade, as they sat along the roadside near a car that looked like it had just broken down. The trailer did not say much about the game’s setting, as it was more a teaser trailer than anything else. Fast forward a few years and the media and fans were wanting more. What they got was silence. The trailer is no longer available on Ubisoft's channel, but you can see it here thanks to Machinima
Ubisoft had been quiet about the development on the game, as no one knew where the game was, or when we would get a chance to play it. In 2010 during the Montpellier Game conference, Michel Ancel, game designer at Ubisoft, stated that the game was still in development, and that the studio was experimenting on new development methods. A few years later, being 2016, after so many reports and rumours, Ubisoft officially re-announced a new Beyond Good and Evil game with a Facebook photo pointing to a new set of characters.
Ubisoft did not clearly state that the image was in relation to Beyond Good and Evil 2, but they did say it was a new Beyond Good and Evil game, so that could mean a reboot, or a prequel perhaps, given that the baby pig in the photo could be Pey’j in his younger days. Will we see a new Beyond Good and Evil game soon? We can only hope.
Command and Conquer
Hands down one of the the best strategy game series of the 90s and early 2000s, Command and Conquer was one of EA's biggest franchises, that one day vanished without a trace. After the Command and Conquer Tiberium saga concluded with Command and Conquer: Tiberian Twilight in 2010, the series went into darkness. In 2013, EA officially announced a new free-to-play Command and Conquer, and fans went wild. Eleven games, and eight expansion packs in the series, and it seemed like it would be making a return to the industry.
A short four months after the announcement of the new free-to-play game, and right after the title ended its closed alpha test, EA pulled the plug on the game, cancelling it, and disbanding Victory Games, the studio behind the upcoming title. Although nothing has been said up to now about the series, and whether or not we will ever see it again, we can just hope that EA are working on something to keep the fans happy. If anything, the world needs a good strategy game, as they are few and far between.
Prey 2
While we know that Prey is coming next year, we had to wait a long time to see the product we know today. After the success of the original Prey back in 2006, Human Head Studios only began work on the sequel to the game in 2009, this was after the rights of the game were transferred from 3D Realms to ZeniMax Media, the main company behind Bethesda. In 2011. Bethesda officially revealed Prey 2, as a new open world game, with a new protagonist, and a new setting compared to the original. Later in 2011, Human Head Studios cancelled development on the game for no clear reason made to the public. The game was already in an alpha state, so many believed that the game was merely cancelled due to it just not working out.
Years after the cancellation, reports came in that Arkane Studios, the guys behind the Dishonored series, picked up development on the game, but it was not true as Bethesda officially announced that the game was indeed cancelled in 2014. In 2016, the studio that they said was not involved in development, was indeed developing a reboot to the series simply titled “Prey”. The Arkane Studio scrapped all previous work ever done on the game by Human Head, and built the game from the ground up. The Prey we know today, is the Prey we will be playing, unless the world ends or something drastic happens. It would have been cool to see what the gameplay of the original sequel looked like to be honest, as the trailer looked awesome.
Dead Island 2
Dead Island was a huge success, despite its flaws, the game was a great open world zombie smasher. After the sequel, Dead Island Riptide, Yager Development began work on a new Dead Island game, that would be set in a new location in California, and be set apart from the two original games. Dead Island 2 was first revealed at Sony's E3 press conference back in 2014, and it showed off a more vibrant, and comical take compared to its predecessors. The game was immediately dated for spring 2015, and pre-orders opened up the day after on the PlayStation Store. A little while later at Gamescom 2014, Techland showed off the first gameplay footage for the game, which revealed landmarks in California, as well as an eight player co-op feature.
Issues started to arise when in 2015, the release year for the game, Techland announced that Yager had been dropped from the development of the game, and Dead Island 2 was not in the hands of an unnamed developer. Yager then filed for insolvency in July 2015, and Sumo Digital announced that they had taken over development of the title. It has been a full year since that announcement, and 3 years since the reveal of the game, and we have no idea what is going on with it. Hopefully we will see something about it soon.
Agent
The year is 2007, and Sony had just revealed a brand new PlayStation 3 exclusive by non other than Rockstar. Sony did not say what it was, only that Rockstar had something special for PlayStation fans. It was not until 2009 that Agent was revealed as the game that Rockstar was working on. Agent was set in the Cold War as players dived into the world of espionage, political assassinations, and counter intelligence. The game was set in the 1970s, and was said to have a unique art style and classic theme to it. Sony did not show of any gameplay for the game, only a logo to it on stage at E3 2009.
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A few years went by without any word on the game, and media and fans started to believe that the game was cancelled, Take-Two squashed those rumors when they confirmed in March 2011 that the game was still in development, and in June 2009, the publisher re-registered two trademarks for the game. In August 2013, those trademarks expired, and were not renewed. The last we saw from Agent, was the few artworks released by Darren Charles Hatton, main artist for the game at the time. Reports say that the development of GTA V had a massive impact on Agent, and most of the team behind the game were directed to Grand Theft Auto V. We don't think we will ever see Agent in the flesh, but it would have been a cool game to play.
There are my main games that I want to play but don't think I ever will. What games have you always hoped would release? Let us know in the comments below.
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