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15 Video Games That Took Way Too Long To Make

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Nazarii Verbitskiy

Gaming - November 6th 2026, 01:00 GMT+1

Metroid Prime 4 Beyond 2025 — 15. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (2025) — 8½ Years in Development

Samus can squeeze herself into a Morph Ball, but apparently squeezing her next adventure into a reasonable schedule was asking too much. More than eight years separated *Metroid Prime 4: Beyond*’s announcement from release, with Nintendo restarting development at Retro Studios after the original work failed to meet expectations. That reset explains much of the wait: the team behind the original trilogy had to build its own comeback. | © Nintendo

14. Dead Island 2 (2023) — Around 11 Years in Development

Yager, Sumo Digital, Dambuster: *Dead Island 2* collected developers before players could collect so much as a bloody wrench. Nearly nine years passed between its announcement and release, but Dambuster’s contribution took around five, starting fresh rather than stitching together its predecessors’ work. The resulting Los Angeles zombie playground wisely concentrates on elaborate bodily destruction. After that much uncertainty, a game so confidently committed to pulverizing kneecaps feels oddly reassuring. | © Deep Silver

13. Mafia II (2010) — Around 7 Years in Development

The suits, cars, and radio stations in *Mafia II* make Empire Bay feel meticulously researched, which is fitting for a project that spent roughly seven years coming together. About five involved active development, with earlier planning adding to the total. Originally intended for older consoles, it eventually moved to PS3 and Xbox 360. Vito Scaletta’s criminal career survived the transition, although that handsome city offers surprisingly little freedom between assignments. | © 2K Games

Star Craft II Wings of Liberty 2010 cropped processed by imagy — 12. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010) — Around 7 Years in Development

Building a sequel to *StarCraft* meant updating a competitive institution whose fans could spot a questionable balance change from orbit. Blizzard spent roughly seven years developing *StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty*, with some staff temporarily reassigned to help finish *World of Warcraft*. Its eventual Terran campaign delivered inventive missions alongside the demanding multiplayer. Taking that long to let us lose to someone with superior keyboard skills almost seems unnecessarily elaborate. | © Blizzard Entertainment

11. Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) — 8-Year Journey, Around 4 Years in Full Production

Eight years of anticipation bought *Cyberpunk 2077* an impossible amount of goodwill, then its console launch burned through it at remarkable speed. That wait wasn’t eight years of full production, however: the bulk of development came after CD Projekt Red’s work on *The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt*. Night City’s ambition was obvious, but so were the crashes and technical compromises. Announcing your future masterpiece early doesn’t give the developers extra hours in a day. | © CD Projekt Red

10. Skull and Bones (2024) — Around 11 Years in Development

Turning *Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag*’s naval combat into a multiplayer pirate game sounded like an easy pitch. Delivering *Skull and Bones* took roughly eleven years, during which Ubisoft repeatedly revised the project and postponed its arrival. The finished game emphasized ship upgrades, resource gathering, and cannon exchanges, with boarding handled through a brief sequence rather than playable sword fights. A very long voyage, then, for pirates who mostly preferred staying aboard their own vessel. | © Ubisoft

9. Too Human (2008) — Nearly 10 Years in Development

A PlayStation project became a GameCube prospect, then finally an Xbox 360 release: *Too Human* took the scenic route through the console business. Silicon Knights’ stop-start journey stretched across roughly a decade, with other projects occupying the studio along the way. The eventual mix of cybernetic Norse gods and loot hunting had an appealing premise, but awkward combat and repetitive encounters left its planned trilogy looking considerably more ambitious than its opening chapter justified. | © Microsoft Game Studios

8. The Last Guardian (2016) — Around 9 Years in Development

Getting attached to Trico takes considerably less time than getting Trico to market did. *The Last Guardian* spent around nine years in development, with technical difficulties on PS3 eventually forcing a move to PS4 and substantial rebuilding. Director Fumito Ueda also left Sony, continuing through his studio genDESIGN. Somehow, that complicated production delivered a remarkably intimate adventure about trust, companionship, and persuading an enormous feathered animal to please, please jump over there. | © Sony Interactive Entertainment

FINAL FANTASY XV — 7. Final Fantasy XV (2016) — Around 10 Years in Development

Noctis kept his magnificent hair through a development process that changed almost everything around him. Revealed as *Final Fantasy Versus XIII*, the project spent roughly a decade undergoing changes to its platforms, direction, and story before emerging as *Final Fantasy XV*. That span includes substantial reinvention rather than ten years polishing the same adventure. The friendships make its road trip memorable, even when the uneven storytelling suggests somebody misplaced several pages of the itinerary. | © Square Enix

6. Prey (2006) — 11-Year Journey, Around 5 Years for the Final Version

Before Arkane used the name for its space-station thriller, *Prey* belonged to a Cherokee mechanic abducted by aliens—and a project that took eleven years to reach shelves. Early versions at 3D Realms gave way to a fresh production at Human Head Studios, which spent roughly five years making the released game. Its portals, gravity tricks, and grotesque spaceship interiors rewarded the patience with inventive shooting rather than merely an interesting development obituary. | © 2K Games

Nq Qu Vw Ruo CSJ9u QV2dv XF4 1200 80 — 5. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (2024) — 6 Years for the Final Version, 14 Years Overall

The fourteen-year gap between *S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2*’s first announcement and release conceals two separate projects: an abandoned original and a revival announced six years before launch. That later production faced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, staff displacement, and the immense difficulty of working through war. Its dangerous, atmospheric Zone arrived with technical problems, but treating this as ordinary development mismanagement would miss the circumstances entirely. Finishing the game was an achievement beyond anything happening on-screen. | © GSC Game World

4. Duke Nukem Forever (2011) — 14 Years and 44 Days in Development

Putting “Forever” in the title was tempting fate. *Duke Nukem Forever* spent fourteen years passing through engine changes, revisions, and eventually the collapse of its original development team. Former staff at Triptych kept working, with Gearbox helping bring the project to release. Unfortunately, surviving production didn’t make Duke’s return a good shooter: its dated jokes and uneven action offered a particularly expensive demonstration that persistence and quality aren’t necessarily traveling companions. | © Gearbox Software

Cropped Team Fortress 2 — 3. Team Fortress 2 (2007) — Around 9 Years in Development

Look up early footage of *Team Fortress 2* and you’ll find military uniforms where you expected a cartoon mercenary shouting about sandwiches. Valve’s roughly nine-year development journey involved major redesigns before settling on the exaggerated characters we recognize today. That visual change helped players identify classes and threats immediately, giving the comedy a practical purpose. Scrapping years of work is painful; in this case, the discarded seriousness was hardly something to mourn. | © Valve

2. Diablo III (2012) — Around 11 Years in Development

The first boss many *Diablo III* players encountered was a login error, an especially cruel greeting after such a lengthy production. Development stretched back roughly eleven years to Blizzard North, whose closure led to substantial reworking under Blizzard’s Irvine team. The satisfying demon-smashing underneath was real, but server trouble and the controversial auction house overshadowed its arrival. Even after all that preparation, Sanctuary needed considerably more renovation before the welcome felt properly warm. | © Blizzard Entertainment

Cropped Mount Blade II Bannerlord — 1. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (2022) — Around 10 Years in Development

For years, following *Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord* meant reading about medieval systems you couldn’t actually play. Nearly eight years separated its announcement from Early Access, followed by more than two years before the full release. TaleWorlds was building a sprawling sandbox of armies, trade, sieges, and political squabbling, so the workload was hardly imaginary. Still, prospective rulers had ample time to develop their own hereditary grievances while waiting for Calradia to open. | © TaleWorlds Entertainment

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Watching a reveal trailer in school and finally playing the game when you have a mortgage is a little much to ask of anyone. Long video game development cycles can involve scrapped ideas, studio shake-ups, and projects that seemingly refuse to leave the drawing board. These 15 games kept players waiting for years, sometimes decades. Some justified the patience; others made those old trailers look considerably more exciting than the finished product.

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Watching a reveal trailer in school and finally playing the game when you have a mortgage is a little much to ask of anyone. Long video game development cycles can involve scrapped ideas, studio shake-ups, and projects that seemingly refuse to leave the drawing board. These 15 games kept players waiting for years, sometimes decades. Some justified the patience; others made those old trailers look considerably more exciting than the finished product.