10 Video Games Studios Were IDIOTS To Cancel

We're still not over most of these.

Batman Project Sabbath
Goran Bukvic/WB Games

While the video game industry is responsible for so many untold hours of joy in all of our lives, there's a completely other side to it too. For every game that sees the light of day, there's another still waiting in the dark, hoping for its moment to shine.

Over the years, countless video games have been either pitched or started development before being completely cancelled. Whether it was done publicly or behind closed doors, there's plenty of fantastic-sounding titles that for one reason or another just weren't allowed to get to the full release stage.

The reasons for this happening vary greatly depending on the title. Developers might fall out with publishers. Companies may repurpose what they've already done for another game. Or perhaps an entire studio might get shut down mid-cycle.

Regardless of what happened, there's certain games that we just can't get over the developers cancelling. They really were idiots to cancel all of these, as each of them could have been spectacular if handled by the right team.

Hopefully one day somebody at these developers sees sense and brings these titles back to life somehow.

10. Batman: Project Sabbath

Batman Project Sabbath
Goran Bukvic/WB Games

It's hard to believe that the last time we got a really good dose of Batman in gaming was over six years ago in 2015's Batman: Arkham Knight.

In the years that followed, speculation has been rife about what was going to happen to the Batman gaming IP. Would Rocksteady keep going and make something new, or would Batman: Arkham Origins developer Warner Bros. Montreal continue on Rocksteady's legacy?

As we now know, Rocksteady is developing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, while Montreal is working on co-op Batman universe adventure Gotham Knights. However, it's recently came to light that that wasn't the original plan.

Codenamed Batman: Project Sabbath, Montreal's original vision for a new Batman game would have an older, more grizzled Bruce Wayne (complete with Kratos-like big bushy beard) and also include a playable Damian Wayne as he takes up the mantle of Batman.

Several pieces of concept art from the cancelled title have trickled out over the last few years, including looks at Gorilla Grodd, Two-Face, what appears to be a female version of Black Mask, renders of Bruce and Damian in the Batsuit (including a Batman Beyond-esque red and black number for Damian) and two versions of Bat Cycles.

Here's hoping that Gotham Knights will be as good as this could have been, as it sounds like a real shame that this one was cancelled.

Contributor
Contributor

Dan Curtis is approximately one-half videogame knowledge, and the other half inexplicable Geordie accent. He's also one quarter of the Factory Sealed Retro Gaming podcast.