Seven games that got me hyped for nothing

Nothing feels better than blind excitement. I love watching game announcement trailers and counting down the days until release. Yet in some cases, my anticipation was abruptly curbed by the cancellation of a game.

Here are seven cancelled releases that got me hyped for nothing.

7. Scalebound

With Scalebound, studio Platinum Games, known for action hits such as Bayonetta, ventured into role-playing games for the first time. In it, you would’ve been able to tame a dragon and fight alongside it against other dragons and monstrosities.

In order to grow the presence of the Xbox brand in Japan, Microsoft secured exclusive rights to the game from the Japanese cult studio. Scalebound was announced as an exclusive Xbox One game at Microsoft’s E3 press conference in 2014.

Collaboration between the rather small development studio around producer Hideki Kamiya and the AAA giant Microsoft proved to be difficult in the years that followed.

According to employees, both sides had different views on what kind of a game Scalebound should be. Despite millions of dollars invested and great progress, Microsoft announced in early 2017 that work on the game had been discontinued. If you’re interested in more details on the development process, I recommend the detailed «Wha Happun» by YouTuber Matt McMuscles:

We’ll probably never know how the almost finished game would’ve felt to play. The rights to Scalebound are owned by Microsoft – and it has already emphasised that it has no plans to revive the game in any way.

6. Silent Hills

When Silent Hills was announced in 2014, I was still in my anti-horror game phase. I actively avoided the genre because I was permanently traumatised by games like Resident Evil 4 and Eternal Darkness. Nevertheless, Silent Hills caught my attention. Why? In short, the game was presented in a totally unique way.

Instead of debuting the title with a bland trailer and a press release, Konami announced the game in a mysterious free download for the PS4. P.T. was marketed as a demo for a horror game from a fictitious indie studio.

The demo was hotly debated across various online forums and socials due to its mysterious presentation. In the snippet, you run an endless loop of an eerie corridor in an abandoned house full of supernatural phenomena. To break the loop, you have to solve cryptic puzzles.

At the end of the demo, it’s revealed that P.T. stands for «Playable Teaser» – a teaser for a new Silent Hill. The credits also reveal that legendary game designer Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid) and cult director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) are behind the project. Also, Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) is in the lead role. What the–?!

Unfortunately, Silent Hills never saw the light of day. Konami fell out with Kojima during the development of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015), whereupon he left the company. Silent Hills was cancelled, and P.T. removed from the PlayStation Store for good.

Following the excellent Silent Hill 2 remake (2024), the death of Silent Hills hurts all the more – what gruesome horror experiences have we been denied due to Konami’s squabbles? Still, at least Guillermo del Toro, Hideo Kojima and Norman Reedus managed to work together without Konami in the end. Not in the horror genre, mind you (2019’s Death Stranding and the upcoming Death Stranding 2: On the Beach).

5. Deep Down

Everyone loves console announcements, no? New hardware, new games and lots of hype. I particularly remember the PlayStation Meeting 2013, where the PS4 was presented.

One of the games on show was Deep Down from Capcom. I was incredibly impressed by what was shown. The lighting effects, fire and destructible environments left looked especially brilliant – it really felt «next gen». Something like it wouldn’t have been possible on the PS3. The trailer looks pretty sweet, even by today’s standards.

There’s even a twist in the trailer: helicopter noises can be heard at the end. Turns out the game isn’t set in the Middle Ages, but in a post-apocalyptic New York.

Okay, I’ll admit it, the details Capcom revealed after the trailer didn’t blow me away. The game was to be free-to-play with multiplayer features. Still, I was hooked by the unusual setting and stunning next-gen graphics and could hardly wait to plunge into the dark dragon turmoil.

After the announcement, gameplay clips were shown at the Tokyo Games Show in the same year. After that, things went quiet. The last official statement on Deep Down came from producer Yoshinori Ono, who claimed in 2019 that Capcom «hadn’t yet given up» on the game. Ono no longer works for Capcom. True, the game was never officially cancelled. However, it seems unlikely that Deep Down will be able to fight its way out of the dark Capcom dungeons again after all these years of radio silence.

4. Star Wars: Project Ragtag

At E3 2016, EA announced a new Star Wars game under the codename Project Ragtag. Back then I was still sick with Star Wars fever, delighted with any new releases from the franchise. A particularly cool fact? Amy Henning was leading the project at developer studio Visceral Games. The brilliant game designer was previously responsible for Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series – one of my favourites of all time.

Project Ragtag was to be a mostly linear, narrative-driven action adventure, reminiscent of those Uncharted titles in terms of staging and gameplay. According to insider reports, the game revolved around a group of outlaws planning and carrying out robberies. Awesome!

Following the huge success of Star Wars Battlefront (2015), EA increasingly focused on multiplayer titles in the following years. A single-player game à la Uncharted no longer fit with the concept. And so things happened as they did. In October 2017, developer studio Visceral Games closed and Project Ragtag was cancelled.

The fact that Star Wars: Outlaws has since come out is only a small consolation for me, even if it’s similar to Project Ragtag in terms of content. Amy Henning is no longer under contract with EA, she’s moved on to Skydance Media. She’s currently working on a new Marvel game (1943: Rise of Hydra) and a new Star Wars title. Rumour has it it’ll share several similarities with her cancelled Project Ragtag.

3. Agent

One year after the launch of GTA IV, Sony announced a new, PlayStation-exclusive from Rockstar at its 2009 E3 press conference. Jack Tretton, PlayStation CEO at the time, was unwilling or unable to share much information about the project. Agent was simply advertised as a globetrotting espionage thriller set in the seventies.

The then-president of Take Two Interactive dropped several tidbits after the announcement. The game, like everything from Rockstar North, would reportedly be very, very cool. It would even redefine the genre and offer a whole new kind of video game experience. Blimey.

Despite the vague announcement, I was extremely hyped. Rockstar could do no wrong at the time, so a new project was a reason to celebrate, even without concrete information. Unfortunately, the game went quiet after E3. Very quiet. Rockstar never officially provided any further information, screenshots or trailers. A few concept drawings and screenshots have been leaked, however. In 2021, the mysterious title disappeared from Rockstar’s website without further comment.

The story behind the project remains largely a mystery to this day. Still, over the years, at least some exciting details around the development process have come to light. Some studio members travelled to Cairo to take photos for research purposes. In doing so, the team almost ended up in prison on charges of producing illegal pornography. With help from the American embassy, the team managed to flee Egypt. A story that’s itself reminiscent of a spy thriller.

2. Rayman: Raving Rabbids/Rayman 4

I used to be a huge Rayman fan. Ubisoft’s whimsically weird limbless mascot inspired me even more as a kid than Nintendo’s moustachioed plumber. I particularly loved the 3D games, especially Rayman 2: The Great Escape.

After the third part, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (2003), the platformer series went quiet. My anticipation was all the greater when Ubisoft announced a sequel in 2006.

The new game was called Rayman: Raving Rabbids and, according to Ubisoft, was to offer expansive fantasy worlds in which Rayman would battle the psychopathic bunnies. In addition to the familiar platforming mechanics, Ubisoft also advertised various creatures with special abilities that Rayman could tame and ride on his adventure – including sharks, eagles and spiders.

The Rayman: Raving Rabbids we got, released at the end of 2006 for Wii, PS2 and PC, had nothing to do with the previously announced platforming concept. Ubisoft canned the game developed by series creator Michel Ancel and warmed up individual parts of it in a soulless mini-game collection. Turns out they really wanted an easily accessible party game with motion controls for the launch of the Wii.

I never got over this loss. On the contrary – Ubisoft has continued to pour salt into my Rayman wound over the years. Raving Rabbids developed into its own party game series with countless spin-offs. Rayman, on the other hand, only got two 2D games (Origins in 2011 and Legends in 2013) and nothing else.

And the pain doesn’t stop there: a few years after Raving Rabbids, it was announced that Ubisoft had cancelled a second Rayman platformer – Rayman 4. This project would’ve been realised by an external studio – but it was scrapped even before the original platformer version of Raving Rabbids. What remains are various concept drawings and 3D models that have been leaked to the public.

1. The Last of Us Online

The first The Last of Us was released in 2013 for the PS3. In addition to an excellent single-player campaign, Naughty Dog’s dark adventure offered a surprisingly good multiplayer mode called Factions. It’s still played regularly by many fans today.

For the sequel The Last of Us Part II (2020), an online mode was also originally envisioned. However, it gradually grew into an independent project during the development process. In 2022, Naughty Dog Vice President Neil Druckmann announced that the game would be just as big and ambitious as the studio’s single-player projects. It would also combine the studio’s excellent storytelling with multiplayer mechanics in a unique way.

The joy over this announcement didn’t last long. In May 2023, industry insider Jason Schreier reported that the development of The Last of Us Online had been put on hold for the time being. Sony’s latest acquisition, Bungie, was to blame. The Destiny development studio had been commissioned to evaluate all multiplayer projects in development at various PlayStation studios. The Last of Us Online apparently hadn’t shown enough potential for long-term monetisation.

The official death blow followed in December of the same year. In a blog post, Naughty Dog announced that development on The Last of Us Online had been completely discontinued. The official reason given was that the game would’ve consumed too many resources as a live service title. These would’ve had to be diverted from single-player projects.

I’m still pretty damn disappointed that I’ll never dive into the story-focused multiplayer world of The Last of Us. If Bungie’s really responsible for the death of the project, I’ll never forgive the studio.

Why was Concord allowed to be released while The Last of Us Online was scrapped? Why does every multiplayer game have to be a long-term live service that forces you to play every day and spend money with battle passes and other crap? Why can’t there just be an awesome multiplayer game from Naughty Dog that you play for a while and then drop again? The world’s unfair.

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Which cancelled games are you mourning?