20 AMBITIOUS Games That Never Got Released

[@digitalbarrito3555]

Just want to point out that 2017's Prey wasn't a follow-up to the Original Prey in any way shape or form. The only thing those two games have in common is the name Prey, which Arkane was forced to use for brand recognition since the publisher had no faith in a new IP.

[@gabedp21]

Which probably pissed off more people than it made happy.

[@digitalbarrito3555]

@@gabedp21 Oh Absolutely. Fans of Prey expected actual Prey because of the name and what they got was not Prey, or Prey 2. Hell, from what I've understood, even Arkane themselves were rightfully unhappy with being forced into using Prey's name for no good reason.

[@toughluck8012]

That game was dope

[@RayvenTheNight]

Remember the trailer for the original prey 2?

[@digitalbarrito3555]

@@RayvenTheNight Oh I do, and I will never not be upset that we never got Prey 2. That's one of those trailers you watch and go "Woah, they made this game, literally, specifically, just for me" I wanted Prey 2 so bad.

[@duelmaster62000]

I was actually hopping to see Scalebond on here. The idea that your dragon could evolve differently depending on how you progress/grind enemies sounding really interesting.

[@wamerteen780]

YES YES YES YES!! I thought I was the only one. A game where Monster hunter World meets How to train your dragon with DMC genes. 🥲🥲🥲

[@deepoetryjay]

I’m very surprised ScaleBound wasn’t on the list. An action RPG where you tame, customise and fight alongside your own dragon? And everyone’s dragon would’ve been unique in style and abilities?? Still burns we never got that game

[@foxracing8973]

That sounds amazing 😩

[@LprogressivesANDliberals]

FUK YEAH I WAS GONNA SAY THAT. As a kid that trailer got me hook line and sinker!

[@rjdresner]

Dude for whatever reason almost NO ONE remembers Scalebound. I always feel like I’m crazy whenever I bring it up.

[@DTraiN5795]

Yeah I wanted this

[@denji94]

Scalebound looked so damn good!!

[@Garmango]

Star Wars 1313 and Prey 2 hurt most for me. Others that hurt were Gotham by Gaslight and True Fantasy Live Online, an old MMORPG by Level-5 which, as a non-fan of MMOs, I was super excited for.

[@dundercontrol]

I really wish we were getting 13-13 over whatever slop Ubisoft is gonna release this year. It's funny how Microsoft pretty much killed the Prey 2 reboot as well

[@bobtom1495]

No, Bethesda killed Prey and Prey 2. Prey 2017 is an ambomination that isn't Prey....

[@danielflanard8274]

​@@bobtom1495 It is neat to see people hate on good games because they feel slighted by them in some perceived way.

[@Lawrence_Talbot]

I can think of half a dozen Star Wars games. Thanks Disney for killing the franchise

[@adamwest8711]

To be honest, it was struggling way before Disney.

[@ongar8893]

@@adamwest8711 how do you mean?

[@antonindvorak14]

1313 being cancelled still hurts my heart

[@Lawrence_Talbot]

@@adamwest8711 not even remotely. Go look at hows many stars wars games we got back then Vs now. In 10 years Disney has given us like 4 games excluding Lego games. Pretty pathetic

[@mikejames4910]

​@@Lawrence_Talbotcosts

[@jamilgame]

For me it was Eight Days and Getaway 3, both on PS3 and from London studios as well.

[@Guardian220]

I remember those cancellations ... E3 2005 was a year of disappointment. Killing Day PS3 was also canceled along with those games. Still smh lol.

[@Marksman3434]

I still feel bummed about StarCraft Ghost even after 18 years since it was canned

[@Mitsurugi2424]

I feel that way about Prey 2. And then angry that Bethesda killed.

[@factotums]

Why Blizzard decided to go all in on a cartoonish live service FPS instead of, anything else, but primarily a new StarCraft game has baffled me for years.

[@imAlexB]

Scalebound. Oh what could have been for Xbox & Platinum Games!

[@VoidSC]

Always appreciate it anytime you guys upload. I was surprised that Wild or Beyond Good and Evil 2 didn't even get bonus mentions though!

[@TheGumpyGump]

I had forgotten about Agent. Thanks for bringing back that giant what-if that I will think about for weeks.

[@joeblow5214]

The Mercs 3 game that was rumored. The mercenaries series has place in my heart.

[@Alskie666]

YES! Wish I could play mercenaries 2 on my xbox I loved that game. Ever see the gameplay for merc 3? Its out there.

[@oooeee5556]

0:33 Nemesis system isn't just "oh wow defeated boss returning". It's literally tiny stories between randomly generated enemies. Each time you interact with them, it will change on later encounters with them and bunch of crazier stuff.

[@MauseDays]

yee i reemeber haveing a nemiss that eventuly could pop up anywhere at any time like majimia in Yakuza. eventuly he was like a cyborg becouse I kept cutting him in half. and I got that rare one where they can comeback even if you sliced off their heads. It was super cool.

[@REDEEMERWOLF]

Nobody said it wasn't dude why are you so defensive

[@SlyRyFry]

It still blows my mind they were making it for a batman game at first, as successful as those lord of the rings games were a batman game in that engine with those mechanics would've been massive. And idgaf about batman fr

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

The nemesis system so powerful WB Game won't let it fall into the wrong Hands.😂

[@chrisstucker1813]

This isn’t a video about the nemesis system.

[@brettbeyer73]

Lucas Arts: "Hey, Disney! Since you're buying us, look at all these projects that will make you money!" Disney flushing everything they don't understand: "What, now?"

[@TheXelum]

Still mourn over Darkborn. It looked so fine. Playing a Bad Monster was always my Dream :D

[@rhatikeo]

i'll never forgive Disney for destroying starwars

[@xVDRx]

In all fairness, George Lucas ruined it a ton of times before Disney got hold of it.

[@Claypidgeon162]

I always thought it'd be interesting to continue the Nolanverse Batman with a video game, playing as Nightwing/"Robin". You could introduce Batgirl and her hangups over not being the "favorite" of Jim Gorden's children as revealed by Two-Face, and you could even bring back The Joker with the right voice actor.

[@AaronLevine-t3j]

Nolan said years ago that he only planned on doing a trilogy and left it open ended in case someone else wants to pick the story back up to do as they please.

[@samhall2130]

I think you are nailing it with some of these videos lately, I had no idea about about some of these games that we never got to see

[@brandon7219]

I was waiting for StarCraft Ghost! I got to play that at Blizzcon 2005. It was so much fun!

[@nomercy8989]

I still remember Project Offset. That game looked like it was 10 years ahead of everything else back in 2004 or so.

[@logieagogie]

Perfect timing! Gameranx dropping a new vid on my break is clutch.

[@dfsw]

This is your boss. Your break was over 45 minutes ago, get back to work.

[@logieagogie]

Ooopss :)

[@paulnolan4971]

Only if you drive stick

[@youtbw]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the follow up to American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns, it was titled "American McGee's Alice: Asylum", it would have served as a prequel to the original game (American McGee's Alice)

[@jettblade]

Star Craft Ghost would have been a pretty fun game and would have opened the door for Blizzard to do more things with their properties. Its a real shame that it didn't go any where.

[@sadxsap2268]

There was a DareDevil game in development for ps2 I believe that was open wolrd. DD could grind on telephone wires and do acrobatics. For the time it looked great . Think it might have been activision. There’s also some cool gameplay from a Darth Maul game that never saw the light of day.

[@foxracing8973]

To know that there was going to be a Pirates of the Caribbean game similar to Fable...ugh my heart just got completely crushed. That would've been so badass.

[@jaqdup7076]

Surprised Beyond Good and Evil 2 didn’t make this list. Announced in 2016-2017 (I think) and aimed for seamless interplanetary travel with realistic scale. It looks great.

[@Safetytrousers]

It's still on Ubisoft's website as a game that will come out. It certainly hasn't been officially cancelled.

[@WhyHighC]

I'm stunned already after #20...This is gonna be a banger!

[@David-ud9ju]

If I'm being picky, number 20 shouldn't even have been in the list, because that ambitious game did get released - they just reskinned it as LotR.

[@ghostparker1987]

ScaleBound

[@jakeandrews99]

Was very surprised this game wasn’t listed. Was very much looking forward to this

[@CSSuser]

That LMNO at #9 sounds so nice man... What a bummer. :(

[@Dick_Valparaiso]

I can imagine it playing as sort of an Alan Wake style road trip. It would've had to have been somewhat linear. But, I could see it having several decent sized hub areas. I think of Alan Wake (the first one) because of the excellent storytelling, world building, and overall great production. Even if the combat didn't set the world on fire it was still good enough to keep you hooked. I was kind of shocked by the scope of some of the areas in Alan Wake (which is around the time LMNO would have came out) for it's time.

[@MioInTheLandOFaraway]

The cancelled game that still makes me sad is The Lord of the Rings: The White Council. Basically it seemed like it was going to be something like an Elder Scrolls game, but in the LOTR universe.

[@thecatfather857]

There was even going to be a Game of Thrones RPG like that. (Not talking about the existing one) Bethesda was approached to make it, but they turned it down. Because they were already making Skyrim.

[@williamyoung9401]

I'm glad you mentioned Star Wars 1313. When I heard that game got cancelled, I almost cried. 😢 (I did actually cry when I heard Starcraft Ghost was cancelled, lol...).

[@chrisgraham1781]

I remember the maker's of Fable wanting to make a game called BC I was looking forward to it but it got cancelled.

[@waylonoconner9121]

Being an old school gamer I remember loads of cancelled games: Ultimate Journey on the NES, Mortal Kombat on the PC Engine (never began development but was in talks at one point), Dando for the Sega Genesis, Dream Land of Giants for the SNES, Conan The Barbarian for the Atari Jaguar, Sonic X-treme for the Saturn, loads of games for the Playstation and from that point on. But some that stick out to me are Ultima Online Origins (Ultima Online II), Castlevania Resurrection on Dreamcast and Sadness and Project HAMMER for the Wii. Lots of great games we

[@Phalanx4004]

Also just have to mention: legacy of kain dead sun Probably wasn't looking to be that great story was, but I love this series and I think deserves to mention.

[@FratinandMadrik]

As an extension to this, you could make a "X cancelled games that turned into other games", where, as you mentioned with the Shadow of Mordor games, some massive elements from cancelled games turned into other, massively popular games. Like how Project Titan turned into Overwatch

[@bodax1069]

I’m surprised Scalebound wasn’t mentioned. I was full sent on purchasing an Xbox 1 just for that game

[@Kopenits]

Maybe it doesn’t fit the ambitious part of the title, but the be game that always comes to mind for me is Republic commando 2/ Imperial commando. First games ending left it wide open for the sequel we never got.

[@RickDangerousNL]

I'm disappointed that Titanfall 3 wasn't on this list.

[@ArtflPhenix]

dude how about Scalebound the microsoft Xbox-exclusive game developed by Platinum games. if that was not canceled maybe xbox could have recovered from the xbox one failures that still have ramifications today. still hoping that one day we have an epic dragon riding/companion game someday

[@andybrown4284]

They could fill a list ten video with xbone exclusives that microsoft cancelled

[@alwayswrite2011]

"City of Titans". Immediately after the closure of all "City of Heroes" servers, a Kickstarter was started to fund a game built by people with a true love of CoH. I'm still getting updates, although they've become incredibly infrequent. I think they bit off more than they could chew, since making an MMORPG with a bare bones crew is next to impossible.

[@4thSurvivorStands]

I remember being excited for an Xbox 360 vampire game called “Harker”. It seemed like you played as Jonathan Harker and killed vampires in Draculas castle, but other than being in a Game Informer magazine and a couple short videos it was buried and impossible to find info on now. The vampires were so cool looking too

[@midwestyle]

Throwback: Warrior's Lair. The Vita's version of Diablo. Was gonna feature cross platform, player made dungeon creation. Sony cancelled it 3 months before release and the devs said it was 99% done.

[@khrisbreezy3628]

Would love to see "ambitious games that released too late" Reminds me of an N64 game that released in 2001 called Aidyn Chronicles the first mage. Had pretty middling reviews but as I replay it, this game could've had a serious cult following, but alas, it's really obscure and only has a small following these days. Like, only a few hundred on a subreddit kind of cult following.

[@InnerSunshine]

Another game like that is Galleon, made by the original, earliest Tomb Raider team, Toby and freinds. The world is massive. The combat and puzzles continue and expand early Tomb Raider tropes. It has NO third act at all. just stops. What it does have is IMAGINATION. The original TR team invested their money in an IP and gameplay they loved and it really shows.

[@garyballard179]

Aidyn Chronicles was awesome for the time.

[@evanhannah8770]

I will never forget silent hills remember seeing that trailer and being hyped norman reedus was perfect for a silent hill game

[@michealhill7275]

StarCraft: Ghost. Wow. You just made me feel 12 years old again. I remember all the gaming magazines covering this and then absolute silence...

[@terrivel11]

“Hideo Kohima of Metal Gear Solid fame” I mean that’s one way to put it.

[@MicIsMyNick135]

There was a shooter called "They" which was announced by CD Projekt in 2007 that got me hyped for a wile. They promised you only had one gun that could be upgrate to any type you want to play. The whole alien setting and the story remindes me at Prey (2006) and I was very sad when it got cannceled.

[@marcbarber1231]

Not mentioned here, but I saw a build of Starcraft: Ghost at E3 (RIP) that had a 4-on-4 mode where you had a competitive payload map where the payload was a flying Terran building. Also lost to time.

[@samslenderman]

Yeah man, I am totally in agreement about Prey 2, i saw that CG trailer with Johnny Cash's cover of Soundgarden, and my head exploded. And i was crushed when it was cancelled, initially uninterested in the reboot.. and fell in love with it anyway and its my favorite Arkane game to this day Lol What i just don't understand when it comes to the cancelled "Nolan-verse" Batman game, is how it seemed like an easier change of plans to turn it into a fantasy-themed action game based on LoTR.. rather than just dropping the nolan-verse aspect and still making a Batman game based on a different iteration of the character (there are MANY, maybe the Keaton batman of the "Burton-verse") or just a brand new, original iteration of Batman.. think about it, if Nolan wasn't interested in sharing (and making MILLIONS of $$), it would've been far easier to just change the look of the bat-mobile and the Bat-suit, than transforming the ENTIRE game. Lol ridiculous

[@weapon_x261]

The cancelation of Star Wars 1313 and the M-rated Darth Maul game still keeps me up at night

[@rjhorne1993]

Thank you, I have been waiting for an update on Project Wright (Darkborne) for such a long time. I was so excited for that game. Sad to see it went away.

[@jimmyfoster7505]

If I remember correctly, there was a psp Star Wars Battlefront game that had the ability to fly between space and ground combat that was released. Hopefully, that wasn't some fever dream from back in the day

[@D25Bev]

I'm still pissed about The Getaway 3 for PS3 getting cancelled.

[@Pyriel_NZ]

You forget to mention that Xbox Dragon game where you shared a heart/soul or something with a dragon and fight together and do quests.... Man I was gutted when that was cancelled.

[@marine606]

Number 8 was meant to be a sequel to Command and Conquer Renegade set in Tib war 3. Command and Conquer Renegade still lives on in the Fan made game Renegade X.

[@Kazuma0915]

I never play horror games but that PT still hurts to this day. It was so good that its such a heavy loss to know that it got cancelled when everyone is waiting for it to come out.

[@calikings420]

gameranx... the source of my happiness

[@brucenatelee]

Raw was the game I've been trying to remember about being hyper-realistic.

[@gameranxTV]

👍

[@franciscoapolinar2316]

Starcraft Ghost actually killed me as a kid, I remember following the game as much as a 10 year old boy could, only to find out as a freshman in high school (4 years later) that it had been canceled a while back already :( true heart break.

[@timothyzentz]

That Diner in LMNO looks like one of the Diner’s they eat at on Breaking Bad

[@me_tanmay]

Have you guys played IGI series, seriously underrated and damn good stealth 1st person shooting, but swithing to 3rd person when climbing or story telling, very good story as well.

[@StaredownGames]

I just watched a video that was all AI voiced. I'm here to wash away my sins. Also, "Next over at number 13, stop" - COMMERCIAL - pure gold.

[@Fonzzz002]

Prince of Persia: Redemption will always sting. But POP has made an awesome comeback with the recent Lost Crown game.

[@icepickle1]

10:40 i think blizzard never forgot about this game because the main character from this game is the spitting image of a specific skin of widowmaker in overwatch

[@nicklapierre5640]

A smaller title that I was really excited for and I know a very decent sized group of people were also excited for was Police 1013. A game similar to Raw but was focused around being a police officer and working your way up through the ranks. Being developed by a small studio but was cancelled when the owner/creator of the studio had to go through treatments for brain cancer. Would’ve been a very cool game for sure

[@BoogieManSince1977]

Would actually like to see a remake of C&C Renegade... and Freedom Fighters (which is still an absolute classic)

[@johnnyringo5777]

George did basically kill 1313 because it was 95% finished but George decided the game should be about a young Boba Fett becoming a bounty hunter. Thr game we saw in the trailer was the almost finished game before George had the team almost completely restart. The game would have been released before the Disney buy-out if George didn't have the team start over

[@therealouis98]

These games would have been awesome most definetely, oh, also there was supossed to be a GTA-Style game called Eight Days, which sadly didn't got released

[@shoeshank112]

Talking about ambitious, a good bonus one would be Overwatch 2's PVE. You could argue the entire thing that made it 2 was the PVE which was cancelled. And it truly was too ambitious for them. They would have had to double or triple their dev team to pull it off

[@skynet0912]

With the entire C&C series, i always wanted a Renegade style game again, but where you also play the RTS parts! My idea was to play the game as an RTS like normal, but if your army was ever in danger on the RTS front, or you were just bored, you could then take direct control of any unit on the map, and play as them in first person. And then if you die as a unit, you get sent back to the RTS gameplay. The downside is that if you play in first person, you leave base management up to the AI, with only a few preselected playstyles to choose from on how you want it to play when in control, like turtle, conserve ressources, spam cheap units or build up base defenses...

[@isaacwest276]

Dang I've been thinking in the last few years about how Marvel needs an arena game with destructible environments (ideally more than 1v1, I know there's an Overwatch-styled one coming out I'm not too interested in). It would work well in a live-service event, as there's so many stories to tell in the Marvel universe it will be a supreme challenge to run out of new ideas.

[@GerardoGarciaMedina]

I remember a game that the video trailer was three characters that looked like D&D characters in a dungeon. It was in first person view. It showed some gameplay and an encounter with a dragon. The end is like it fades into a computer screen hinting the whole D&D aspect was a game within the universe of the game.

[@idgaffub]

I love seeing these games leak fully semi playable online

[@TheHanyou]

Your description of Banjo X is basically the FF7 Remake lol

[@kentcross258]

Hahahah I was looking for this comment. Literally exactly the description of ff7 remake. I love gameranx and Jake. But some things have me shaking my head 😂 like do they even play games. (That’s a joke)

[@TheKalmier]

had to scroll to far to find this. granted, banjo would have done it first.

[@Ford17x]

I only pre ordered 1 game in my whole life and still play that game to this day, the best game ever made, Wreckfest!!!

[@skullsunderer4090]

1313 broke my heart! Another Star Wars game I remember looking forward to was Republic Commando 2, but I've given up hope a long time ago. Sad to see all these amazing ideas get canceled.

[@DrDoomrider]

"We all know that sometimes EA don't have standards" 😂

[@allhandsonsteamdeck1440]

I'm so glad edios made the tomb raider trilogy I love and so.etimes hate how different you control Lara but there is no doubt everyone that's involved in the reboot tombraider trilogy series are all legends

[@yesterworld21]

Haven't watched yet, but gotta put in a bet for "Deep down". I go back to the trailer to listen to the music from time to time.

[@nerdedkyle3515]

There was in a game shown on g4 back in the late 2990s called project something never came out I'm trying to remember exactly what it's called but it was wild and ground breaking

[@RealTuckered]

Well, I’m depressed.

[@Frost4Real]

Hopefully SW Outlaws can capture some of what made 1313 look so cool. Glimpses of it in the opening to Jedi Survivor

[@sacredsock8031]

a follow up; "X games that did (finally) get released, but couldn't live up to the hype" I'm thinking DaiKatana, Duke Nukem 4 and Homefront 2

[@KellyRFennig]

I have it on very good authority, a.k.a. the actual Devs who worked at Pandemic who worked with me at Slant Six, the core engine for the pirates of the Caribbean game became the boat and water mechanics of Ac4 Black Flag. And some of the big scripted set pieces of the final ship fight was part of the initial vertical slice demo for POTC.

[@carlossosa2907]

Scalebound broke my heart

[@akeekazi1103]

Pirates of the Caribbean fable. That combo literally sounds like it could have been my favorite game of all time.

[@akeekazi1103]

Scratch that Def Jam game with Marvel characters and destructible environments. I need that

[@deanmoxley5546]

So much good game unfortunately got cancelled. Pirates of the Caribbean Sea, Tomb Raider, Prey 2, Spider-Man, Star Wars 1313, everything is just looking absolutely fantastic. I also have to mention the sequels of Bully and Turok, I was really hoping these games will release one day, and also This is Vegas.

[@KyoutaAzuma]

4rabet ka interface bohot user-friendly hai, easily sab kuch access hota hai

[@BottomtoothGaming]

Came here for Starcraft Ghost. Not disappointed 👍

[@huangjun_art]

COULD YOU IMAGINE? A Destiny-esque Spider-Verse game, mass multiplayer, open world, you create your own Spider characters, with customized powers and gadgets!? You can take my whole wallet!!

[@KatsuhikoTerada]

Yaar 4ra ka interface bohot easy aur user-friendly hai, maza aata hai use karne me

[@OthoGardner]

Bhai 4rabet ke features bohot amazing hai, har baar kuch naya dekhne ko milta hai

[@axeldrane]

Not necessarily an ambitious one , but my inner teenager will never recover from THQ's Daredevil not getting made. Loved their Punisher game so it felt like DD was in good hands at the time.

[@atompunk5575]

Faith and a .45 is on gane i was highly anticipating for

[@gregoryjames3287]

Dark Born would have been my jam. It sounds so absolutely cool. Can some devs make that, please!?

[@Dannte2009X]

Whenever i watch one of those videos i think of PotC Armada of the Damned. I had never heard of it and watched the trailer bevore learning it was canceled.. it made me realy sad

[@MSFTJustice]

10:42 I remember playing a portion of Star Craft Ghost at a gaming convention that blizzard had a both at. 4V4 PVP matches

[@AriKitsune19]

A remake of Banjo Kazooie would've been awesome. This game was my introduction to the N64 and holds a special place in my heart as a kid. Darkborn was something I was hyped for. In fantasy, playing heroes are awesome, but a monster for the first time - that caught my attention really fast. // Backspace was intriguing to hear about; too bad we didn't get it either. I really hope we can have these games someday!

[@KDRusha]

I play sim-style sports games (horrible existence btw), watching this channel over the years has let me know how few games I’ve actually played in my life by staying in the sim sports world.

[@Beateau]

People forget Command and Conquer Renegade was a thing when they talk about Tibirium.

[@BrokenNoah]

20:08 I didn't know Darkborn was cancelled. I just thought the game was still in development. Didn't realize the game has been in development for quite a while now. It has a very intriguing premise.

[@fantazjo]

if i'm not mistaken at some point there was supposed to be JADE EMPIRE 2

[@AdamIsUrqed]

There was, but it was cancelled mainly due to pressure from EA for BioWare to take their shrinking dev teams and focus on Dragon Age and Mass Effect. It was going to be a sequel set hundreds of years in the future where magic had gone away for most of that time but was making a comeback, completely built off the bad ending from JE. Mark Darrah has a video on his KZbin channel about it. Acvording to him, they even had a fully functioning demo of the game before it was stamped out of existence.