Gaming has become one of the world’s most beloved past times, with year after year bringing new installments in established franchises and teasers for upcoming projects. Sadly, even the gaming scene can be filled with heartbreak from time to time. Upcoming projects, after teasers, gameplay demos and mounting anticipation, are sometimes unceremoniously shut down, like the nowinfamous cancellation ofSilent Hills.
But if theshocking revival ofSix Days in Fallujahis anything to go by, the gaming industry is an ever changing place with unexpected surprises around every corner. If said military shooter can be brought back from the dead, there may yet be hope for other promising titles that never managed to see the light of day.
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Scalebound - Xbox One
The Xbox brand is often criticized for its lack of first party exclusives, a problem that seemed to be remedied with theE3 2014 reveal ofScalebound,a large scale action title about riding dragons from PlatinumGames. The premise alone must have been too good to be true, as the project was shelved in 2017.
Not much is known about the current status of this highly compelling game, butthe trademark forScaleboundhas been reneweda few times in the past, implying that the IP is alive in some capacity over at Microsoft. PlatinumGames themselves have expressed interest in someday finishing the game, so maybe this tale of dragons will take flight again in the future.
Star Wars 1313
Video games based on theStar Warsmythos have seen a huge resurgence with the action RPGStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and theupcoming Ubisoft open worldStar Warstitleleading the charge. However, years before either game had even entered development, LucasArts was producing a dark, technically stunning third person adventure game calledStar Wars: 1313.
Very little was ever shown off to the public aside from theastounding E3 2012 showcase forStar Wars: 1313,that promised a more mature narrative than usually presented from this franchise, and with gameplay similar to the cover based shooting and platforming of theUnchartedseries. The title has been cancelled for years, but the force always finds a way to return itself to balance, so hopefully it makes a return in one form or another.
StarCraft: Ghost
While some fans are reeling from the recentDiablo 2: Resurrectedannouncementduring the recent BlizzCon event, others still waiting for a sign thatStarCraft: Ghostwill make a comeback have again been left disappointed. After several years of development issues in the early 2000’s, Blizzard ultimately made the decision to cancel this third person action game set in theStarCraftuniverse.
Perhaps the technology at the time was not proficient enough for the ambitious vision of the game or Blizzard ultimately felt it was too large a genre departure from the usual RTS style of the series, but the demise of this game still stings for many fans. Sometimes its for the best, since developers can scrap what wasn’t working and revisit the project with more success later on, similar to howPrey 2was reworked into 2017’sPreyreboot.
Eight Days
Prior to its launch, the PlayStation 3 was being hyped up as a monstrous technical powerhouse, capable of video games unlike anything seen in the past. As time went on, much of that promise was seen as exaggerated, like the CG trailers forMotorstormandKillzone 2that were claimed to be actual gameplay.Eight Dayswas one such game, that aimed to deliver a cinematic experience similar to thestory heavy narrative of theUnchartedseries.
Unfortunately, the hugely ambitious project that featured realistic physics, destructible environments and high octane gunplay was shelved by Sony in favor of focusing resources on other games it had in the pipeline. Much has changed since then, withSony placing strong focus on narrative driven games, so maybeEight Dayswill return in some capacity on the PlayStation 5.
