As with any major part of the modern entertainment industry, countless video games are pitched, greenlit, developed, and published for widespread commercial purchase – so many, in fact, that not everyone could possibly play (or be aware of) every single title. Likewise, many game projects will ultimately not reach commercial release – or get past earlier stages of production…sometimes, even preproduction. What follows are some of the most infamous game cancellations you’ll likely hear about.

10. Star Fox 2

In what’s an odd example of an “infamous video game cancellation,” Star Fox 2 – reportedly completed and ready for release on the SNES in 1995 – was cancelled by Nintendo to move development focus from the then-declining 16-bit console to the Nintendo 64 (with 1997’s Star Fox 64 taking elements from SF2 and effectively replacing it). However, after many years of its beta build being shared via ROM dumping, the fully polished game was finally released in an official capacity as a title on the Super NES Classic Edition in 2017 (with Switch subscription access coming in 2019).

9. Agartha

Agartha, a cancelled survival horror game for the Sega Dreamcast, is notably fascinating in its own right for the previously long-running lack of information on it aside from screenshots and a brief plot overview in older gaming magazines previewing it as an “in-development” 3D title. Before the more recent discovery (and online circulation) of a partial build of the game, the most that could be said about Agartha was that it was going to feature an elderly man traversing through Romania in the 1920s, with gameplay that would’ve incorporated a then-novel system of making moral choices.

8. Castlevania: Resurrection

Going from one scrapped Dreamcast video game to another, Castlevania: Resurrection was also briefly previewed in older gaming magazines as an “in-development” 3D title, with it even receiving a short demo movie seen at E3 before its cancellation in 2000. However, like with Agartha, a partial build of the game would begin circulating online in 2021: while some found it to be a bit lacking and (obviously) unpolished, it’s still a shame that we didn’t see Resurrection finished and released.

7. Sonic X-treme

Existing similarly to the previous two entries as multiple gaming magazine previews (albeit with much more coverage and documentation), Sonic X-treme‘s cancellation for the Sega Saturn is a long-winded, even tragic story of poor choices and corporate infighting. While we’ll never really know how the game would’ve held up – its unique visual aesthetic, wild camera perspective, and interesting conceptual soundtrack showing some promise- Xtreme‘s cancellation in 1997 indirectly solidified the failure of the Saturn in the Western market, with far-reaching impact on the ill-fated Dreamcast.

6. Thrill Kill

Having a notable chunk of my childhood overlapping with the release of – and ensuing controversies over – the first three original Mortal Kombat games (and not fearing a little indulgence in my baser impulses), previews for the infamous PS1 fighter Thrill Kill caught my attention with its then-exceedingly violent and edgy presentation. Even though the game was ultimately doomed to cancellation by it earning an “Adults Only” (AO) rating from the ESRB (equivalent to an NC-17 movie rating), many who’ve played its leaked IOS speak fondly of it – even regretful of its cancellation.

5. Aliens: Alien 2 (FDS Version)

Admittedly, being more of a curiosity to me than an explicit disappointment, the unreleased Famicom Disk edition of the MSX game based on the film Aliens actually looked fairly promising – relatively speaking and keeping in mind the console’s visual and mechanical limitations. Multiple uploads of unofficial playthrough videos demonstrate a simple but arguably nice- and fun-looking tie-in video game that could’ve been far worse and phoned-in than many others that were released (and had certain stars aligned in our favor, it could’ve also been given an NES version for the Western market).

4. Scalebound

Readers will probably have seen my professed love of the 2005 PS2 masterpiece Shadow of the Colossus, with Hideki Kamiya‘s cancelled action RPG Scalebound reportedly including conceptual elements from both SotC and its predecessor, Ico. The cancellation of the game – which would’ve been a high-profile 2017 release for Windows and Xbox One – was something of a disappointment due to the title promising a vast and complex setting incorporating varied gameplay elements, with many looking forward to it based on PlatinumGames‘ previous pedigree in high-quality action titles.

3. Resident Evil 4 (“Fog/Hallucination” Version)

In another case of a “cancellation” for a game that actually still released – but in an entirely different form, the so-called “fog” or “hallucination” version of Resident Evil 4 was one of multiple iterations of the fourth mainline RE entry scrapped for its final, more recognizable configuration. While RE4 (and its fantastic 2023 remake) is by no means a terrible game, I can’t help but wish we could’ve experienced the previewed version, seeing Leon trapped in a creepy (and seemingly haunted) castle.

2. Silent Hill(s)

Masterfully teased in the hidden ending of the notoriously cryptic P.T. demo released on the PS4 in 2014, Silent Hill(s) was going to be a reboot of the then-dormant Silent Hill franchise – as backed by a creative alliance featuring Hideo Kojima, Guillermo Del Toro, and Norman Reedus. However, the full game “teased” in the demo would ultimately be cancelled by Konami at an extremely early stage of development (as exacerbated by Kojima’s public falling-out and departure from the company), with P.T. being promptly removed from the PlayStation Network for download or redownload.

1. Mega Man Legends 3

Whereas Silent Hill(s) at least had P.T. for gamers to (momentarily) play with and get something of an early “taste” of what the former game might’ve been like, the infamous cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3‘s playable 3DS prototype is arguably worse for not even offering that much. What was especially disappointing (and, for some, highly infuriating) about the situation was the game’s then-ongoing “open development” process encouraging online fan participation and input regarding multiple aspects of the prototype’s overarching design, all of which amounted to absolutely nothing.