As anyone who’s been into gaming for any amount of time knows, the business lives and dies on hype. Rather, those in charge of marketing games seem to think it does. While thereissomething to be said for getting fans excited for what’s coming next, there absolutelyissuch a thing as announcing a project too early. Sometimes it leads to overpromising, as seen with the likes of Watch Dogs and Cyberpunk 2077. Sometimes it creates unrealistic expectations among the fan base, turning decent games into perceived disappointments.
There are also times when games are announced so far ahead of their release dates that they become stories akin to urban legends, with fan excitement being almost entirely petered out by the time the projects finally see the light of day (if they ever do). These are some of those infamous, announced entirely too early games that arestillMIA as of January 2024 and which might just pass into gaming legend if they remain so for much longer.
1Hollow Knight: Silksong
Team Cherry first announced Hollow Knight: Silksong back in February 2019, which means it’s been about five years since fans first got their first taste of the indie studio’s follow-up to its crowdfunded hit. Now, five years of development usually isn’t a terribly long time when it comes to video game development. Really, it’s almost the new minimum for the AAA space these days.
No, the issue has to do with how much was shown at first and how little has been shown since. See, fans weren’t just shown the kind of cinematic teaser one would expect of a game that is still years away. Instead, Team Cherry showed what looked like real gameplay and then followed it up a few months later with a playable demo at E3.
This had many thinking that the game was far along in development and was thus probably only a year or two away from full release. After that demo, though, little was said before it reappeared as part of a 2022 Xbox showcase of games that were supposedly coming in a matter of months. Following that presentation, however, Silksong was indefinitely delayed, and here we still sit without any new information. What happened, and why? Only Team Cherry knows, and it’s still opting to keep quiet for whatever reason. Here’s hoping fans will finally get an update once the announcement’s fifth anniversary hits next month.
Returning Features, Ideas That’d Make Hollow Knight: Silksong a Must Play
2Dragon Age: Dreadwolf
Reportedly in development since 2015, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has been a long time coming. After numerous delays, major reworks and the departure of key staff members, the project may at last have a path to the finish line.
Unlike Hollow Knight: Silksong, there’s actually recent, significant news about the project:it finally reached Alpha state late last year.That is, the developers can now play through the game from start to finish. This, no doubt, has come as something of a relief to fans, as it means they likely won’t one day wake up to headlines informing them of the project’s cancelation.
This is going to be a rather important release for BioWare too, as it’ll be the first full game released by the studio after years of struggles, shake-ups and debacles. Indeed, withMass Effect: Andromedaand Anthem being what they were and the departure of virtually all the company’s founding talent by now, this likely will be the game that shows whether BioWare is still capable of producing greatness or not.
3Metroid Prime 4
The (hopefully) next 3D Metroid represents yet another strange case. Nintendo is certainly not hurting for money, and the Metroid franchise has been healthier than ever since the release and successes of Metroid Dread and Metroid Prime Remastered. Fans are once again excited at the prospect of another Metroid Prime game and…there’sstillno sign of Metroid Prime 4.
In a few months, it will have been seven years since the game was first announced in June 2017, and it’s now already beenfiveyears since Nintendo announced that development was being restarted with Retro Studios leading development. One would think that Nintendo would be keen to capitalize on the excitement its recent Metroid games have generated, yet there still seems to be no announcements forthcoming.
This is not necessarily bad news, though. Nintendo has been making a point to show that it’s still interested in Metroid as a franchise, so it’s not as though the company is cool with just letting Samus waste away sitting on the bench. In fact, with the recent launches ofLegend of Zelda: Tears of the KingdomandSuper Mario Wonder,it may very well be that Nintendo has decided to hold back Metroid Prime 4 in order to have a killer-app ready for the seemingly inevitable Switch 2.
After all, the Switch is turning seven this year, which is old enough that just about everyone is asking when it’ll be replaced. It’d be unfortunate to not get to play it on the console it was initially promised for, but then it’d also be cool to get to enjoy it as the first experience on Nintendo’s next-generation platform.
Review: Metroid Prime Remastered
One of the Gamecube’s best, Metroid Prime Remastered is a brilliant enhancement to what was already an all-time classic.
Review: Metroid Dread
Sure to please longtime fans and general Switch owners/newcomers alike, Metroid Dread more than delivers on a climax two decades in the making.
4Perfect Dark
Announced as an Xbox exclusive being developed by The Initiative, the Perfect Dark remake had fans of the series feeling excited at the prospect of being able to step into the shoes of Joanna Dark again. With reportedly half of the project’s development team departing just a year later in 2021, however, the bringing in of Crystal Dynamics to help make up the missing manpower and thenthe acquisition of Crystal Dynamics by Embracer Groupand a development reboot a year afterthat, it’s something of an understatement to say that the situation surrounding the project has been a messy.
The last concrete piece ofinformation given about Perfect Dark came in June 2023,when it was learned that development had more or less begun again from scratch back in 2022. No official word has been given yet, but it’s probably safe to say that the game won’t be seen again until at least 2025. The project is still apparently under Microsoft’s banner in the end though, and considering how hungry the Xbox is for juicy exclusives, chances are still decent that fans may yet get to go out on one more mission with Agent Dark. It’s just going to take a lot more patience.
Microsoft’s New Studio The Initiative to Bring Back Perfect Dark
5Beyond Good and Evil 2
There’s perhaps no project more elusive in the AAA space than Ubisoft’s Beyond Good and Evil 2. This is a project that has existed in one form or another for over fifteen years now, and in that time, has been started, stopped, radically changed and restarted any number of times. It’s been going on so long at this point that even a full physical release would probably be met with serious skepticism by more than a few fans out there.
The last official statement regarding the game came from Ubisoft’s Chief Financial Officer, Frederick Duguet, duringa July 2021 investor callin which he said, “We are progressing well with Beyond Good and Evil 2, but it’s too early to tell you more at this stage.” So, at least at that point, development was still ongoing. Just two years later, though, Emil Morel, Creative Director for Beyond Good and Evil 2,suddenly and tragically passed away.
This almost certainly caused issues with development, but it was also reported that Mr. Morel was apparently proud of the project and the team that was working on it. So it’s entirely possible that it was left in hands capable of seeing the game through the remainder of its development cycle. No official statements on the project have been given since, so here’s hoping that Beyond Good and Evil 2 does indeed make it through to the other side and goes onto to be one of only a relative handful of development hell hits.
E3 2017: First Beyond Good and Evil 2 Trailer Released
How is Beyond Good and Evil 2 Doing These Days?
It’s always worrisome whenever too much time passes after the announcement of an exciting, new game. It tends to indicate problems behind the scenes, and that rarely bodes well for the final product. Thankfully, development hell is not necessarily a death sentence for those games that get stuck there. Half-Life 2, L.A. Noir and even DOOM (2016) all reached that point and came out great on the other side. So, here’s hoping that all of these projects will one day see full release as the fun, high-quality experiences we’re all hoping they’ll be.
