Video games get canceled for all sorts of boring reasons. Sometimes they just don’t have the money to get finished, a studio closes up shop, or funding gets pulled. There are tons of reasons for games to go the way of the dodo, but there sometimes are some weird reasons a game might get itself canceled.
In this list we are going to dive into those canceled video games that got pulled for the weirdest reasons. From having too much money and getting lazy, to studios getting into idiotic lawsuits, these are five titles we’ll never get to experience in their fullest form.
5. Ninja Gaiden (Competition)
Ninja Gaiden is a legendary title whose series on the NES set the standard for hard-as-hell action platformers to this day. It was a huge departure from the original Ninja Gaiden that appeared in arcade and that NES series would spawn much loved entries across every generation since, with a new title just recently being announced at the time of this writing.
Sega wanted in on this action and scooped up the rights to get the game on its Master System console, with plans on releasing a game on the upcoming 16bit Sega Genesis console. This new entry on the Mega Drive would have been closer to the beat-em-up original from the arcades. The game itself was pretty far into development and was on track for release before Sega pulled the plug.
Their reasoning? The house that Sonic built felt that the game was far too similar to their own Streets of Rage series. The boys upstairs probably made the right business decision with this cancelation as they were afraid Ninja Gaiden would siphon off sales from Streets of Rage, a brand-new and in-house IP. A beta did eventually leak so at least you can experience what we missed out on via emulation.
TL;DR: Didn’t want it to compete with Streets of Rage
4. Skate or Die Reboot (EA Meddling)
Criterion Games is a studio that makes a much of fantastic games. Mostly known for the Burnout series, the studio almost lost everything thanks to Skate or Die. EA came calling in the early 200s and wanted the team to reboot the classic NES game, Skate or Die for modern consoles. The team loved the idea of making a Tony Hawk-like game and pitched a game that let the player walk around each level and selecting their spots to do tricks. It even featured stores that could be entered to buy upgrades.
This was an advancement at the time as the Tony Hawk games were still doing the timed drop in gameplay like in the days of the PS1. EA was so happy that they even allowed the team to work on the next Need For Speed title thanks to their work on the Burnout series. Everything was shaping up until EA decided to pull an EA and stared making boardroom inspired demands.
EA now wanted to expand beyond the open-level gameplay and wanted Skae or Die to be the next GTA. They wanted it to be an open-world game, but outside of the term, EA had no real idea what that meant or entailed. The game was quickly morphing from a skating game and becoming something all its own with no real direction. The team at Criterion were struggling with EA wanting more and more and changing the original vision of the game.
Criterion did the unthinkable and called EA for a meeting sand told them they were leaving the project. EA lost it and threatened to kill the company and the Need for Speed team telling them they couldn’t work with them on the game since they were essentially blacklisted. Thankfully Criterion would survive and work with EA again on Burnout 3, but all that EA meddling killed what could have been a fantastic skating game.
TL;DR: EA kept meddling in development
3. Eternal Darkness 2 (Failed Lawsuit)
The original Eternal Darkness is one of the most unique games to release on the Gamecube, and for that whole generation for that matter. So, a sequel was a no-brainer and while Silicon Knights skipped the Wii, the team were working on the game for the Wii U and potentially other current generation console. This would have been fantastic considering the Wii U needed the help with how much trouble it was having getting any real market share after the success that was the Wii.
Silicon Knights was keeping the game close to the vest, and we only really found out about it after it was canceled. Unfortunately, Silicon Knights was on a downslide in terms of releases and their reception with their X-Men game being a disaster. This led the studio to cut staff and jeopardize Eternal Darkness and other titles. But this wouldn’t be the death of the game. That would be because Silicon Knights lost their damn minds and sued Epic Games.
Silicon Knights was working on Too Human and announced it would be making the game on the Unreal Engine 3. The game was running on then incomplete versions of the engine and Silicon Knights sued stating that Epic wasn’t cooperating by providing technical support for their engine and faking its capabilities. They dropped the engine and said all their games would use a new in-house engine. Epic counter-sued and won with the judge finding that Silicon Knights committed copyright infringement by using the Unreal Engine 3 code to build their own engine for projects putting them in breach of contract.
Silicon Knights was then forced to recall all the games that were using the engine that they claimed was made in-house. This included Too Human and all other games they were developing. When Nintendo found out about the loss in court and the fees that Silicon Knights would have to pay, they halted working with them and killing off Eternal Darkness 2. It would have cost Nintendo near $10 million to help keep Silicon Knights afloat and they made the business decision to let the company go it alone and eventually close.
TL;DR: Nintendo didn’t save the studio after it sued Epic Games and lost
2. High Heat Baseball 2004 (Microsoft Got Lazy)
This is a really strange one as High Heat did release in 2004 on all platforms excluding the GBA and Gamecube. Both of those versions were complete and planned for release a few months after the other versions. That of course didn’t happen because the 3DO company went into bankruptcy and those versions of the game were shelved. The intention was to release them later when the company’s assets went on sale to another company.
It’s a great plan as any company that bought the High Heat brand would have two completed games ready for release. At worst they could have pushed the release back and call it High Heat 2005 while they found a new studio to work on future titles. And that’s what many thought when Microsoft purchased the rights to the series from the 3DO company.
It all made perfect sense as Microsoft was now in the console space and having a console exclusive baseball series could do a lot to bring in more fans and sales. That, and the fact that competition is always a good thing for the consumer. But that ever happened. Microsoft has never released a High Heat video game since purchasing the IP. It’s unclear as to why, but some think they planned on using the brand but saw it as too much of a money sink, especially with trying to re-up the license with MLB.
We may never know the real reason, but we think Microsoft was simply buying up brands just in case they ever want to use them someday in the future. When you have money to throw around why not just throw it around. We for sure would love to see High Heat return as a game for Game Pass or even see the game release for the Switch 2 through their Gamecube lineup much like Star Fox 2 did for the Switch.
TL;DR: Microsoft bought the IP and forgot about it
1. Titan A.E. (Movie Bombed)
There is nothing more American as apple pie and releasing video games based on animated movies. If an animated movie released there would almost certainly be cheaply made video game based on it, even if it was only on something like the GBA. So, it was no surprise that Titan A.E. was supposed to get a video game adaptation with a demo and marketing materials being sent out to critics and game journalists at the time. It even got shown off at E3 in 2000, making it a pretty big deal.
But the game never came to be. Fox Interactive canceled the game during development after the movie bombed in theaters. This is a little strange as game sales could have helped recoup some of the films loses and even be used to promote the home release of the film. We’ve seen so many other films that bomb still get a video game released. We’ve got Blue Brothers 2000, Cool World, Little Nicky, and the worst rated movie of all time, Ecks vs Sever all get video games.
Titan A.E. might not have done as well as the studio hoped, it’s still a decent movie. It would have been an action-adventure game that looked to take influence from the likes of Tomb Raider with flight combat sections. It might not have been an all-timer sort of game, but it actually looked pretty fun, especially for fans of the film. I for sure would have wanted to try this one after seeing the flight combat sections of the game. Thankfully for us, a demo of the game has leaked so unlike a lot of the games featured here you can actually play this one for yourself.
TL;DR: The movie stunk up theaters
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