Game development is a complicated and costly business. It’s also an industry that sees a lot of creative and innovative projects left on the cutting room floor, ending up as canceled games. This can be for any of a number of reasons, such as costs, staffing, resources, creative direction, or whether or not a project is seen as commercially viable, for example. However, just because something didn’t make it out into the public domain, doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t ever see the light of day, right?
Well, one site has done some digging and discovered a number of canceled games from giants such as Ubisoft, Riot Games, and Disney, to name a few. Spanish gaming site Vandal has published a list of some of these previously unheard-of projects, with some accompanied by concept art and initial in-game imagery, just to really tease fans with what might’ve been.
One of the first canceled games described in the findings was a cyberpunk game that was in the works at Riot Games. According to Vandal’s research, Riot was actively developing a cyberpunk-style title between 2013 and 2014, and looks set to have been designed in a totally new direction from their usual League of Legends-style of artwork. Other than some pretty compelling images from concept artist Flavio Hoffe, who Vandal attribute as the creator of the game’s accompanying art stills, not much is known about the title. Whether or not Riot will come back with a cyberpunk game at some point in the future remains to be seen, but perhaps it decided at the time that dystopian adventures weren’t quite the right direction for them.
Also listed in the article is an inside look at a canceled game from Ubisoft, which was reportedly being developed for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The project also featured two main characters, an older male company CEO and a computer technician, both of whom had in-game 3D models prototyped and showcased in still images. Other than that, not much else is known.
Disney had also been reportedly working on a social and massively multiplayer game during the 2011-2012 window, which was ultimately canceled for reasons unknown. Vandal spoke with one of the canceled game’s artists about the project, who revealed that the socially-oriented game, which was to be aimed at younger audiences and would feature a number of different interactive biomes, never got off the ground, with many of its development team apparently never quite understanding why. Disney is soon to release Disney Dreamlight Valley though, which sounds as though it may have been built upon the foundations of this idea from ten years or so back.
Other notable projects included in the list of canceled games include an action game from Nexon, a game known as Beast Control from Square Enix, and Obscure 3 from Hydravision. To check out all the images and footage from these canceled projects, be sure to check out the galleries for yourself over at Vandal.
