From a very unique take on bounty hunting to cool takes on espionage, several excellent ideas have been buried by their studios, with a variety of factors coming into play that didn’t let them see the light of day. We’re taking a look at a few that we would have loved to play, but sadly never got the chance to.

Let’s dive right in.

1. Crackdown 3

While its Wrecking Zone multiplayer mode drew heavily on Microsoft’s bold idea to bring cloud computing to the Xbox One, Crackdown 3 didn’t really catch on the way it should have, despite being a lot of fun. The final product was sadly nowhere close to the high bar that was set for it, with the result being a very destructible city that was largely devoid of the players it was meant to host.

The dream of entire city blocks collapsing in front of you with your console handling core tasks and the cloud rendering all of the destruction just didn’t materialize, and the game suffered for it as a result.

2. Project Milo

This was a tricky one for a long time, with a lot of back and forth about whether it was actually intended to be made into a game taking place between its creators and Microsoft. Still, it would have been cool to see a game with AI actively responding to you and acting on your voice commands.

This was a relationship sim that could have been quite innovative for its time, but it simply faded away into the background amid all the noise surrounding its “release”.

3. Star Wars 1313

We’d be lying if we said that this one didn’t sting a little. For starters, it was supposed to have Boba Fett as its frontman with a fast-paced gameplay loop that relied on gadgets and more traditional weapons in lieu of lightsabers and The Force. As if that wasn’t enough, it was purported to emulate Star Wars Bounty Hunter while bringing a gritty, darker tone to its story.

Sadly, LucasArts never got to make this one a reality, and we never got to explore District 1313 and see what the underbelly of Coruscant had to offer.

4. Silent Hills/PT

A Silent Hill title that was going to feature a collaboration between Hideo Kojima and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (whose horror credentials are quite well known), with Norman Reedus playing its protagonist, sounds like a dream, right? That’s sadly all it was to most of the gaming world, with Konami pulling its playable demo from the PlayStation Store shortly after its cancellation.

All we can do is look back fondly at the supernatural time loop being brought to the table, and of course, shudder at the thought of Lisa constantly lurking out of sight just waiting to jump at us. A Playable Teaser was all this one was ever going to be in the aftermath of Kojima’s exit from Konami.

5. Prey 2

Aside from the obvious draw of an amnesiac protagonist affected by the presence of The Sphere from the first game, the chance to be a bounty hunter on an alien planet while uncovering the truth about his abduction sounded too good to be true. That was probably a valid insight when we look back at this one, with the game’s plans to make you embody a bounty hunter never coming to fruition.

We would have loved the chance to make use of all the agency this one gave us as we took on the role it wanted us to, but all we can do now is smile somberly at what could have been.

6. Scalebound

An action-RPG that gave fans of the Eragon novels a lot to be excited for, this one might have been a legendary title had it actually made its way to its audiences. Getting to command a literal dragon in the heat of battle, and even directly take control of it to unleash its fearsome abilities, is an idea that we’re yet to see even in the current generation of games. And that’s without even considering the co-op potential that the concept could bring to the table.

Its eventual cancellation after years of development is a showcase of how even the best of ideas may not translate to commercially viable titles in the long run.

7. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Patriots

Although this one did make way for Rainbow Six Siege, the thought of being part of a unit led by a morally grey former Navy SEAL against a terrorist group that was willing to impose its own beliefs on New York’s residents had all the makings of a Tom Clancy story that was true to the author’s vision and tone.

However, the decision to cancel the title and scrap this unique concept is a choice that we continue to question to this day.

8. The Lord of the Rings: The White Council

An open-world RPG where you would work under the guidance of the White Council, with its story and themes drawing from both the films and books, sounds like a Lord of the Rings adventure that might have put even Frodo and Sam to shame.

But it seems that the idea was cast into the fires of Mount Doom, and while we do have Shadow of War to help us cope, we can’t help but wish for a Palantir to view what it might have turned out to be if its version of Middle-earth was allowed to take shape.

9. Agent

Set in the Cold War and rumored to place its players at the heart of all of the espionage, political assassinations, and counter-intelligence that the era brought along, Agent was a great idea. Even Sony seemed to think so, locking down its IP with the belief that it could “set the bar for the industry” as per Michael Shorrock, who headed SCEA’s third-party relations at the time.

A stealth-action game with Rockstar at the helm certainly fits that description, but like the agents it aimed to bring to life, this one quietly vanished, presumably sacrificed in order to focus more resources on the development of GTA V.

10. Project Titan

The World of Warcraft killer that spent seven years in development continues to have us wondering whether it might have been able to live up to its lofty ambitions.

Despite the best of Blizzard coming together to bring this sci-fi MMO to life, complete with cool mech suits and rumored superhero-esque powers for its characters, along with a unique twist where you play as a normal citizen of the world by day while battling it out at night, Project Titan was unable to get off the ground. This is a cancellation that still rankles, if we’re being honest.

11. The Last of Us Online

Among the many projects that were cancelled in the aftermath of Sony’s ill-fated live-service push, this one was the most disappointing to us. The concept definitely had its merits, with a massive world filled with The Infected being the perfect stage for a survival-horror gameplay loop, complete with a standalone story to keep things interesting.

Unfortunately for it, the concept was scrapped after concerns about its long-term viability began to rear their head. For our part, we would have played this one for hours on end if it had made its way into our hands.

12. Duke Nukem Forever

While Duke was a hero who was quite clear about where he stood on alien invasions, the creative team behind this one could have emulated his conviction. That wasn’t the case, and this title switched engines during its development so many times that it’s hard to think about the game it was meant to be versus the one that we got.

Its vision was ultimately diluted by a needless focus on technical relevance, and as one of the record holders for being the longest game in development, we can’t help but feel that this was a game that deserved to be greater than the sloppy experience it ultimately devolved into.

13. Final Fantasy Versus XIII

The darker, more gothic take on the franchise was quite appealing when it first came to light, and Prince Noctis was quite an intriguing character. But with Final Fantasy XIII and eventually Final Fantasy XIV constantly dividing the attention of its team, and engine issues caused by the PS3’s aging tech, this one was pulled back and repurposed into FFXV.

When the trailer for the game eventually came around, it felt like it had changed almost completely, ditching its darker tone for something better aligned with the franchise’s overall light-hearted trappings. It would then be a solid five years before XV came out, and Versus XIII quietly vanished from the hearts and minds of its potential players.

14. The Getaway 3

We were quite fond of the original Getaway’s unique way of presenting its world, with the sort of cinematic quality that comes along quite rarely. With its parallel storylines and lack of a HUD and other elements, it was quite immersive and also fun to play as a Sony-backed sandbox. The sequel carried on those traditions, and we were delighted to know that a third title was in the works.

But The Getaway 3 was lost to the annals of time, with its cancellation never actually being announced, but quite clearly understood by the gaming world at large.

15. Deep Down

A sci-fi fantasy co-op adventure that would have its players exploring time-hopping dungeons is something we’re still waiting to see. It doesn’t help that Deep Down had its gameplay drawing inspiration from Dark Souls, which was already among our favorites to begin with.

But its 2013 reveal, and the lack of any concrete evidence of its development over the years has essentially made this once unique concept nothing more than vaporware. We’re holding out hope that it eventually becomes a great game, but we’re not going to hold our breath.

BONUS: Wonder Woman

Monolith’s proprietary Nemesis System, a unique mechanic that worked so darn well in the Shadow franchise, was the perfect way to craft a Wonder Woman story that could really dig into the character’s lore who could defy challenges and come back stronger.

That’s probably why the cancellation of this one continues to be an annoyance to us, as the concept is probably not going to make it to any other titles in the near future.

And that’s a wrap on our picks for great gaming ideas that showed a lot of promise but did not ultimately make their way to their players. Here’s to hoping that we don’t have to make another one of these lists over the next few years, though!

Freedom Fighters 2

IO Interactive delivered one of the most enjoyable shooters with 2003’s Freedom Fighters, a game that beautifully meshes tactical elements along with pure adrenaline-pumping action and an emotionally charged narrative of overthrowing oppression – and fans absolutely lapped it up. There have been scant rumblings of a sequel over the years, but nothing much has come to fruition. While the IP continues to be under the possession of now-independent IO Interactive, the chances of a full-fledged sequel happening anytime soon are extremely slim. 

Sleeping Dogs 2

Sleeping Dogs might have felt like yet another one of those cheap GTA clones, but United Front Games’ open-world offerings were as much a product of their creativity as it was derivative of Rockstar’s works. Wei Shen’s story of navigating through the criminal underbelly of Hong Kong is a consistently thrilling ride that’s punctuated with great gameplay variety and fun open-world activities, and the ideas were ripe to be built upon with a sequel. United Front Games had some ambitious plans in place, but those were gone to waste as the developer closed doors permanently in 2012 – leaving us with faint hopes that will probably never come true.

Star Wars 1313

There is no shortage of Star Wars-based games in the current market scenario, but it’s hard not to reminisce about the canceled Star Wars 1313 project. The game was being developed by LucasArts themselves at one point, and it would be telling the story of Boba Fett in his early days of navigating the galaxy. Initial showings of the game looked impressive with its cinematic gameplay and faithful rendition of the popular sci-fi setting, but the project was put on hold when Disney purchased the studio – putting the final nail in its coffin.

Agent

Rockstar is behind some of the best games of the last couple of generations, and the studio is also behind the mysterious vaporware that was Agent. First announced all the way in 2007, Agent was supposed to be an open-world game with elements of espionage and fans were understandably excited to see what was in store. Months and years passed with little in the name of concrete information on the game, and Agent slowly faded into the void with no hopes of emerging back once agai

Bully 2

Since we are on the topic of canceled Rockstar games, we should also discuss Bully 2. The original Bully felt like a breath of fresh air with its school setting and a narrative that let you experience the highs and lows of a teenager living in a boarding school, and those ideas were ripe to be built upon with a sequel. While nothing was ever announced in an official capacity, there have been several rumors and reports that state that Bully 2 was at least in the cards at some point if not in active development. Rumors continue to churn out even to this date, but the chances of anything coming to fruition are pretty low.

Scalebound

PlatinumGames has rightfully established its reputation as one of the best names when it comes to developing action games brimming with style and substance, and Scalebound felt emblematic of the studio’s biggest strengths. Scalebound’s idea of using dragons as your companions was enough to send fan expectations off the charts, and initial showings were looking really promising. However, development wasn’t the smoothest and the team faced several problems in trying to create a cohesive experience with online functionality built into the game eventually leading to Microsoft canceling the project altogether. It’s a shame that such an amazing idea was let go to waste, and Scalebound could have genuinely turned out to be a great time if PlatinumGames was given the creative freedom they wished for.

Silent Hills

Konami’s Silent Hill franchise is set to make a grand comeback with several new entries set to release in the near future, but we can’t help but think about the canceled Silent Hills project. Silent Hills was Kojima’s take on the popular horror franchise, and the playable teaser was more than enough to leave fans salivating for the final release. But the infamous Konami-Kojima breakout left the project in ruins, eventually leading to it being canned and our hopes and dreams unfulfilled. 

A New Metal Gear by Hideo Kojima

The Metal Gear Solid series has continued to deliver hit after hit with each new entry, and it continues to be one of the most revered franchises thanks to the incredible attention to detail that Kojima and the team have poured into each and every aspect of the experience. While the series is also making a comeback with the upcoming release of Delta Snake Eater, we would love to see another new Metal Gear directed by Kojima san himself, but the infamous Konami-Kojima break-up leaves little chance of that happening anytime soon.

 A New Burnout

Criterion’s Burnout series was one of the best arcade racers of its time, and its gameplay loop of crashing into rival cars and emphasizing a generally aggressive driving style was what helped the franchise stand out from the crowd. But with EA eventually moving Criterion to work on the Need For Speed series, the Burnout IP was kept hostage and it slowly turned dormant over the years. Without a shadow of a doubt, there are more than thousands of fans who are hoping for a revival, but the current state of EA and its obsession with continuing to invest in NFS means that a new Burnout game isn’t likely to come out anytime soon. 

Portal 3

The Portal games continue to be some of the best puzzle games of all time, thanks to an ingenious central mechanic that forms the basis of all gameplay and the witty writing that came along with it. Many games have tried to create similar experiences since then, but none have managed to capture the magic of Valve’s works – which has left us craving for a potential Portal 3 even after all this time. But given the current stance of Valve’s game development division, it seems like Portal 3 would probably never see the light of day. 

New Dino Crisis 

Dino Crisis was very much a product of its time, a game confident in its ability to deliver a consistently thrilling experience despite being based on a concept so weird. We have had some really fond memories of shooting down dinosaurs with machine guns, and we would really love to get a new entry with the same level of eccentricity and fun that is so characteristic of the franchise. However, it feels highly unlikely that the developer would be making much effort to breathe new life into this now stagnant IP. And no, Exoprimal doesn’t count.

Deep Down

Yet another one of the developer’s failed projects, Deep Down was put forth as one of the PS4’s launch titles. Deep Down featured impressive graphics for its time, and the concept of working your way through procedurally generated dungeons with friends sounded like a really fun idea that could have genuinely turned out to be a big hit. Development wasn’t obviously the smoothest, which eventually led to the game being delayed to an indefinite date. We still think about what Deep Down could have been, but all we can do is hope.

Titanfall 3

Titanfall 2 was a great game that y featured one of the best FPS campaigns of all time but it failed to capture much of an audience since it was sandwiched between the highly overrated Battlefield and a Call of Duty series- making it a commercial failure. The future of the franchise already looked bleak after that failure, and now that the developer has been focusing majorly on Star Wars – a potential Titanfall 3 is most likely not on the cards. 

The Next Dark Souls

It’s safe to say that FromSoftware has birthed an entire genre with Dark Souls, and the entire trilogy remains one of the best experiences of recent memory. The developer has already moved on to bigger experiences with the likes of Elden Ring, but there’s undoubtedly a void for a new Dark Souls game. Between this and the fact that the trilogy brought a definitive end to the endless cycle of fire, a new game coming out feels like a distant dream that probably won’t come true.

Prototype 3

Radical Entertainment’s Prototype was a really great open-world game that provided a really satisfying power fantasy as you mow down entire squadrons of enemies in moments unnoticed, and those elements were taken to the next level with Prototype 2. Radical Entertainment was slowly devolved into a support studio for Activision’s bigger franchises before it was closed sometime in 2014, leaving the dreams of any potential Prototype 3 dead in the dust.

Dominic Robilliard has announced on his LinkedIn page that he has joined Skydance New Media as game director. For those not on the new, Robilliard was the creative director on the cancelled game Star Wars 1313, following which he joined PlayStation. His last project was Concrete Genie, on which he served as the director at PixelOpus. The studio was shuttered by Sony earlier this year.

Which project specifically Robilliard will be working on at Skydance New Media is unclear, with his LinkedIn post mentioning both of the studio’s titles. “To collaborate with such an amazing group of developers, and to play in the iconic worlds of Marvel and Star Wars (again!) is a dream come true,” he wrote.

Though little is known about the Star Wars title, some details on the Marvel game were announced last year. Set during WW2, it will star four playable heroes, two of whom, as mentioned previously, will be Captain America and T’Challa’s grandfather Azzuri as the Black Panther of the time. The game’s been described as a “cinematic” experience, while it’s also been confirmed that despite the presence of multiple playable characters, co-op will not be featured.

Originally, the only footage of the game to exist was the original E3 reveal. Now, it seems people can have a look at more footage of the canceled game, courtesy of a channel on YouTube researching about the original canceled Star Wars: Battlefront 3, called The Vault.

The Vault recently revealed footage of the Star Wars: 1313 in action, where we see Boba Fett giving chase to a person through gray boxes, showing the movement the game was trying to achieve. Most of the footage shown in the video was in the early prototype stage. Near the end, we see some more footage of the planned animations Star Wars: 1313 would’ve had.

Unfortunately, that is all we have in regards to the canceled game, and while Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which is getting its own sequel, kind of fills up the gap for a character-based action-adventure single player game set in the Star Wars universe, 1313’s cancellation does still sting.

Check out the video of the canceled Star Wars: 1313 down below.

Dragon Age 2

Don’t you just love it when a publisher wants a sequel for your game? Especially with just 14 to 16 months for development? Such was the fate that befell Dragon Age 2 thanks to Electronic Arts and as a result, BioWare ended up cutting a lot of story content and scaling back on the locations (besides crunching continuously). Granted, the sequel would find some appreciation, especially for what it offered in its short development cycle, but such haphazard development wasn’t needed.

Following the unlikely revival of the Star Wars battlefront brand this year, I suppose all Star Wars fans now ask themselves the question- dare they hope for more similar returns of their beloved Star Wars brands? Take Star Wars 1313, for instance. The gritty, promising third person shooter on the life of bounty hunter Boboa Fett looked like it would be one of this generation’s premier games, before it was cancelled following LucasArts’ buyout by Disney.

However, that game may not be forgotten yet- recent statements made by a Disney executive make it sound as though the company does have some sort of an interest in pursuing that game, or at least its setting, in some form.

“And there was [Star Wars] 1313 the game, where there was [unbelievable concept art],” said head of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy in an interview with Slash Film. “So our attitude is, we don’t want to throw any of that stuff away. It’s gold. And it’s something we’re spending a lot of time looking at, pouring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further. We definitely want to.”

Does this mean we will get a new 1313 game? Unlikely. However, at the very least, this makes it clear that the story that game wanted told, will be told in some form or the other.

Star Wars Battlefront may be the big Star Wars project coming from EA that is anticipated, but it’s not the only Star Wars game the publishing giant is working on; another Star Wars game is in development at Dead Space developer Visceral. That has been known for a while now, but what has not been known is just what the game is like, or what it will be about.

Now, thanks to industry veteran voice actor Nolan North, we know a teensy bit more about it. Speaking to the audience in a Q&A panel at MetroCon, North said, “If you’re a big fan of [former Naughty Dog developer] Amy Hennig and her style of story, she’s gone to EA and is going to reboot a brand new Star Wars franchise in the style of Uncharted. I happen to know a lot about it and it’s going to be awesome.”

Hennig, of course, quit Naughty Dog some time back amidst a cloud of speculation and controversy- if she is working on the new Star Wars game, it of course makes sense that it would have the DNA of the series that she helped plot to such an extent.

However, Uncharted is not the only thing this game will take inspiration from, apparently- when asked about the promising looking Star Wars 1313, a third person shooter that was in development at LucasArts right before the developer was forced to shut down, North also confirmed that Visceral’s game is “along the same lines.”

It certainly sounds intriguing, and is personally something I am more interested in seeing than Battlefront. Hopefully, we get to see it in action soon. When that happens, we will let you know. Stay tuned.

Star Wars 1313 remains a tragedy- it looked like a highly promising and ambitious action adventure/third person shooter game set in the Star Wars universe, and might have been a great big success for LucasArts, had they not been gutted, their games in development all canceled. It was also one of our earliest looks at just what we could expect from the new generation of consoles, back before the new generation of consoles was even a thing.

But all that talent is not lost- after doing some digging, we found out that the developers of Star Wars 1313 (not all of them, obviously) are a part of 2K Games’ newest development studio, Hangar 13, which was announced just a while back.

What is more, they appear to be working on an ‘intense’ action game for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. And this is all we know about the game.

I mean, it’s not much to go on, but just knowing that the talented folks who might have given us one of this generation’s defining games had they not had the rug pulled out from under them are still out there, working on something else potentially just as promising.

When Disney bought Lucas Arts and proceeded to shut down the studio, it put an end to many a planned franchise. This included Star Wars 1313, a third person shooter which was to star bounty hunter Boba Fett as the protagonist. Despite a singular gameplay trailer at E3 2012, no news was ever heard about the game until it was cancelled.

As for whether a company like, say, Microsoft could revive the project and make it exclusive to the Xbox One, it’s unlikely. This is according to Microsoft Games Studios corporate VP Phil Spencer, as he responded, “Probably not. I’m sure Disney have their own plans for SW.”

Those plans now involve tying up with EA, who will develop and publish games under the Star Wars license. We already know that DICE was to work on Star Wars Battlefront before the Battlefield 4 debacle – it’s also been rumoured that Bioware and Visceral Games could get in on the act. What are your thoughts on Star Wars 1313 making a return? Let us know below.

Star Wars 1313, the promising Star Wars third person shooter in the works at LucasArts that was canned as the company itself went down under, had a lot of potential, so it is only fitting that the lead talent on its development team would soon find themselves a new home.

And now, it appears that Sony Computer Entertainment America has hired Dominic Robilliard, creative director on the Star Wars project, as a design director, IGN reports. The interesting thing here is we don’t quite know what he is working on- no project is specified on his resume, and he is not apparently affiliated with any of the various studios that fall under SCEA’s purview either (which include Naughty Dog and Sony Santa Monica).

This isn’t Robilliard’s first stint at Sony either- he worked at SCEE before, where he was working on the canceled The Getaway 3. Dude seems to have the worst luck with his projects getting cancelled, it seems like.