One of Microsoft's biggest issues out of the gate this generation was getting AAA titles out to its fans. There were exclusives here and there, but they either took forever, or they were canceled. Some of the games on this list were canceled by other developers, but a majority of them Microsoft had a hand in letting go.

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Were these the right decisions? It's hard to say. Microsoft did recover in the end, but it did take awhile and ultimately this could affect the perception fans have of them when choosing the next system to buy this fall. Now that that time is drawing near, let's take a look back at the Xbox One's fallen heroes that never saw the light of day.

10 Stormlands

Stormlands was never officially announced. In fact it wasn’t discovered until 2017 via Eurogamer. It was planned to be a launch game for the Xbox One in 2013 and was in development by Obsidian Entertainment. 

That said, it was canceled in 2012. In typical Obsidian fashion it was going to be an RPG. It’s a weird turn of fate that Microsoft canceled this game only to buy Obsidian at the end of the console’s life cycle. 

9 Human Element 

Human Element was announced in 2012 for the now forgotten Ouya console. The first trailer would not emerge until the 2014 Game Awards and even then it was just a CG concept trailer. At this point the Ouya version was dropped in favor of the PS4 and Xbox One.

The studio developing it, Robotoki, was comprised of former Call of Duty members from Infinity Ward. Before the game could be showed off in any official capacity, it was canceled in 2015. 

8 Black Tusk Unknown Project 

Microsoft announced a new internal studio, Black Tusk, at E3 2013. Along with this was a game that looked like Splinter Cell, where agents were repelling down a building only to infiltrate it at the end. The teaser was brief, but new studio announcements can be captivating.

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Unfortunately this game was never named. In fact, a year later Microsoft acquired the Gears of War IP from Epic and then announced in 2015 that Black Tusk had been rebranded as The Coalition, who would now be in charge of Gears of War 4

7 Fez 2

Promotional image of Fez' protagonist

Fez 2 was announced during E3 2013. It was then canceled a month later in July. The sad part is the creator, Phil Fish, decided to cancel the project due to an argument he got into on Twitter. He then resigned from the Internet.

That said, SuperHyperCube released in 2016, which was co-developed with his studio, Polytron. How much he was involved is unknown, if even at all. He’s still kind of a ghost on the Internet true to his word, which is sad for Fez fans. 

6 Hellraid 

Hellraid was announced in 2013. It was like a demonic version of Dead Island or Dying Light, as both of those games were also developed by Techland. A mobile game brandishing the name launched in 2014, but the main version has since been out on hold.  

This probably means it is canceled. Since then Techland also left development of Dead Island 2 in favor of making a sequel to Dying Light, another game that has suffered from an indefinite delay. What is going on at Techland? 

5 Fable Legends

Fable Legends was announced during the 2013 Gamescom event. It was showed around at various trade shows, including E3, after this reveal. It was even playable to the press.

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Unfortunately it was canceled in 2016, shortly after it was announced that it would become a free to play game. Along with the game’s cancellation, the studio, Lionhead, was also canned. 

4 Scalebound

Scalebound was a collaboration between Microsoft and PlatinumGames. It was announced at E3 2014 and like Fable Legends, was even playable at other events. Three years later it was canceled in 2017. Needless to say, the falling out created some bad blood between the two companies.

Rumors have spread that Nintendo might revive it, but nothing has come of these allegations yet. Fans can at least find solace in the fact that PlatinumGames has continued to grow despite this setback. 

3 Phantom Dust

Another announcement at E3 2014 was a teaser trailer for Phantom Dust. For some context, the original game came out for the Xbox in 2005. As it skipped a generation, fans were more than hyped for a sequel.

However, Microsoft and the developer, Darkside, also got into a disagreement, ending with Darkside being taken off the project. Eventually the sequel was canceled in favor of a free to play remaster of the original in 2017 instead. 

2 Ion

Ion first emerged at E3 2015 with a teaser concept trailer. Dean Hall, the creator of DayZ, came out after it to discuss his intentions for the game.

It was an ambitious next step for the creator, but it ultimately ended up getting canceled two years later in 2017. 

1 Project: Knoxville

Project: Knoxville was announced in 2015. To coincide with many new games at the time, it was going to be a survival simulator like Rust, or the aforementioned DayZ

Microsoft acquired the studio, Press Play, in 2012, and helped usher in the project. However, both the game and developer were shut down in 2016. That sort of became Microsoft’s thing during this generation. 

NEXT: Xbox 360: The Top 5 Must-Own Exclusives (& 5 You Should Skip)