It’s hard for fans to wait for a game they are excited about. That’s part of the fun of hype. However, it can be an awful feeling if all of that hype was for nothing and the game turned out to be a dud. But what about the games everyone was hyped about, but have been forgotten over time due to obscurity?
Games get canceled all the time, but sometimes they lie in a limbo state. They aren’t being worked on. They aren’t being talked about. They just exist. The Xbox One has had its fair share of games officially canceled in its lifetime; for example, Scalebound. However, these eight may someday see the light of day. Whether they will launch on Xbox One or some future Xbox console is unknown.
8 Atomic Heart
Atomic Heart made a big splash this year with its 2021 trailer during Xbox’s summer showing. Some viewers may not have realized it at the time, but the project dates back to 2017. There has been one trailer almost every year since.
Gamers can easily track the progress Atomic Heart has made since 2017. Was this last trailer a big push to show that it is closer to launch than ever before? The answer, sadly, remains a mystery.
7 Dead Island 2
Dead Island 2 was revealed in 2014. At that time, the series was decently large as a niche action RPG with zombies. The previous games may have been full of bugs, but they were near and dear to a dedicated group of fans. Good intentions aside, though, this game has seemingly gone through development hell, passing from one developer to the next.
The project started under the supervision of Techland, with Yager being the head developer. Techland took its eye off the project to focus instead on Dying Light. After that, Sumo Digital took over, and in 2019, Dambuster Studios took over. In 2020 a playable build of the game leaked online from a 2015 demo. That’s pretty much the last concrete detail Dead Island 2 has seen in some years.
6 Harold Halibut
Harold Halibut came to light in 2017. At that time, the initial trailer said that it would be coming to PC and consoles in 2019. It has obviously missed that date. Not only that, the game disappeared for years with barely any updates.
The website now just says “coming soonish,” which is better than nothing. Making a stop-motion film is presumably hard enough — imagine the work involved in making a stop-motion adventure game. This labor of love can take all the time it needs to get done so long as it doesn’t disappear forever.
5 Iron Corbo: Kung Fu Janitor
Iron Corbo: Kung Fu Janitor is a great name for a video game. The project was shared in a forum with several other indie developers going over projects as well. This is the earliest mention of Iron Corbo by name, with screenshots.
The Twitter account was made in 2015, meaning it is safe to assume that the project may have started as early as that. After disappearing, it came back with a new trailer in 2021, so hopefully it's back on track. Iron Corbo will be a console exclusive to the Xbox family.
4 Mineko's Night Market
Mineko's Night Market was revealed in 2017 as well. The last trailer was in 2018, but the game has since received some small, random updates on Twitter. It is safe to assume that project isn’t canceled at least, which is always a good thing.
The release dates have changed almost every year since its debut. For example, it was supposed to launch in 2021, but now the release window shows 2022. Since the dates never land, it’s hard to tell if this should be taken seriously or not. It takes time to make an adorable life-sim like this, so no worries here.
3 Pay Day 3
Pay Day 3 was announced with some vague details in 2015. Since then, there has only been concept art shown. At first was supposed to release in 2018, then 2021, but now the date feels further off. It’s weird to have a game be around this long without a single trace of gameplay footage available to eager fans. There hasn’t even been a CG trailer.
For some extra context, Pay Day 2 was released in 2013. Both it and its predecessor were huge multiplayer games. Since then, Grand Theft Auto 5 has seemingly eaten their lunch with their heist-based multiplayer — which could be why this game is taking so long. The developers may want to differentiate themselves, and push the concept beyond themselves and the Grand Theft Auto series.
2 Skull And Bones
Skull and Bones was yet another game announced in 2017. At first it was just a CG trailer, but the project has been shown off multiple times with gameplay since then. The early focus was to turn the ship battles from Assassin’s Creed into a huge multiplayer experience. Feedback on that concept alone, though, was mixed.
Rumors seem to indicate that the game has gone through several changes. There might even be a single-player pirate campaign now. Right now, the game is set to release sometime between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. However, it's hard to take that timeframe seriously, since it’s been awhile since Skull and Bones was properly shown off. Still, anything is possible.
1 System Shock
There are two System Shock projects in the works. One is a reboot of the original 1994 game simply called System Shock, which was put on Kickstarter in 2016. The crowdfunding page said in a November 2021 update that a backer demo was going to launch soon.
The other game is a sequel, System Shock 3, which was unveiled in 2015. The last time this was shown off was in 2019 via an IGN exclusive gameplay walkthrough with the developers. System Shock 2, was released in 1999 so a sequel has been a long time coming. Which project will release first? It’s time to place bets.