Usually in the video game industry, when an in-development title is cancelled by the publisher, it means "game over" for the project, no matter how close it may have been to being finished. Team members are assigned elsewhere, ideas and features may be reused for other titles – but the code will just sit there, collecting dust for all eternity.
There
are, however, a few notable exceptions: Sometimes, developers who once
had to shelve a project may later find renewed interest and favorable
market conditions, allowing them to release their work to the public decades later. We at EarlyGame have compiled this list of 11
such examples. For those curious about any case, we've written detailed
articles on their history, linked in the following slides.
Perhaps the most prominent example of the phenomenon we aim to highlight with this list, the original SNES sequel to Star Fox (1993) was famously almost completely finished when Nintendo decided that it would make them look bad, terminating their relationship with developer Argonaut Software, taking some of its ideas for their own Star Fox 64 (1997) and locking the game in a vault until the manufacturers of the SNES Classic Mini plug-and-play console convinced them that the title would make for an excellent bonus. | © Nintendo
Jordan Mechner may be best known for Karateka (1984) and Prince of Persia (1989), but he got his start developing clones of Atari's Asteroids (1979) for home computers. With his first original title, he intended to use both experience and code derived from his porting efforts within an entirely new sci-fi themed shooter, boasting its own innovative physics engine. It would be rejected by the publisher, but eventually caught public interest. | © Jordan Mechner
When the original Shantae (2002) for Game Boy Color flopped to no fault of the development team, they aimed to finally give their half-genie hero the success she deserved with a sequel for the Game Boy Advance. However, no publisher was willing to take on the risk (the last failure still on their mind), meaning that the team needed to wait until they had accumulated enough resources to self-publish their games. | © WayForward Technologies
Metroid Dread, as the sequel to the acclaimed Game Boy Advance title Metroid Fusion (2002) sought to build on its predecessor's atmospheric appeal. However, the Nintendo DS simply proved too underpowered for the team's creative ambitions, whereas development on more powerful home consoles would've required more funds, which Nintendo was unwilling to allocate to the title until the Nintendo Switch generation much later. | © Nintendo
The team behind Sega's Wonder Boy/Monster World series wanted to make their final arcade game a proper send-off to that chapter of gaming history, only for Sega to assume that, next to the 3D competition, nobody would be interested in a gorgeous pixel art co-op platformer. Decades later, retro publishers and the original creator recognized how well it would fit into the indie platformer space, purchasing the rights and releasing it themselves. | © ININ Games
Creating a first-person shooter for the limited Game Boy Color was always a bold idea, but that was exactly the point. To showcase his technical skill, Ben John built an engine capable of powering this fluid Texan-dinosaur-robot-themed FPS. The project's fate took a strange turn when its publisher abruptly withdrew and recovering the finished game's source code must've been difficult after it was reportedly stolen and taken to Australia. | © Piko Interactive
Wrapped up in legal issues, high amibitions for new gameplay innovations, shifting target platforms and – not completely irrelevant – the Russian economy of the early 2000s, Captain Blood was one of two planned sequels to Age of Pirates/Sea Dogs (2000). The Xbox 360-era, pirate-themed hack-and-slash would only get to shine much later, when former members of the team bought the rights to finally give it at least some release. | © SNEG
Before DICE were known for making Battlefield, they were known... Well, not at all, really, but they did make some pinball and racing games for home computers. This exploration-based run-and-gun for the Sega Mega Drive could've become their first breakout success, if Psygnosis didn't doubt its competitiveness last-minute. Much later, it would be deemed fit to be included with the aftermarket Mega Sg console though. | © Strictly Limited Games
One of Sony's earliest projects to support what we'd now call indie game development was the Net Yaroze kit for the original PlayStation, which three hobbyists used to create a four-player dungeon-crawling action RPG. Sony showed interest in the game, but ultimately tried to recruit the developers instead – an offer they declined. Years later, one of the team members rediscovered the game's source code on a forgotten floppy disk. | © KAIGA
After a group of friends in Italy started developing their first-ever video game, they surprisingly managed to finish the sidescrolling GBA action RPG, only to find that cartridge costs were too high to bear themselves, with no publisher willing to support the indie project. While one of them later founded his own development company, he only saw an opportunity for it to return when aftermarket games became big in the 2020s. | © Incube 8
Sporting the longest duration between cancellation and release, it's Akka Arrh. Due its innovative concept of having players defend a base from enemies on two distinct layers, this shooter was deemed to difficult by contemporary test audiences, who were presented with prototypes arcade cabinets. Atari shelved it at the time, but would eventually include the prototype in the Atari 50 game compilation in 2022, before allowing industry veteran Jeff Minter to remake the game for its standalone release in 2023. | © Atari SA
Sometimes, developers who once had to shelve a project may later find renewed interest and favorable market conditions, allowing them to release their work to the public decades later. We at EarlyGame have compiled this list of 11 such examples. For those curious about any case, we've written detailed articles on their history, linked in the following slides.
