10 Video Games That Languished In Development For Years
8. L.A. Noire (2011)
Development Time: 7 Years (2004 to 2011)
In most cases, the elongated development period for a game stems from issues with publishing, who holds the rights, or from technical issues relating to the target system. L.A. Noire suffered from none of these problems, but it still took seven years before it was finally released.
The reason the game was in development for as long as it was had to do with the need to create an entirely new engine to make it work. Rockstar typically uses their Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, but the game began development at Team Bondi, and its advanced features required something that didn't yet exist to make it work.
In the game, the player needs to pay close attention to the facial movements of a subject during interrogation. The subtle nuances of these movements can sway a conversation on any of several paths and set the player in the wrong or right direction.
To make this happen, the developers created MotionScan technology, which used 32 cameras to capture an actor's facial expressions from every possible angle. The development of this and the rest of the game took several years, which meant that the game, which began development in 2004, ended up being delayed until it was finally released in May 2011.