20 Announced Video Games That Are NEVER Coming Out
These games have been in development hell for so long, they'll likely never make it out.
The best things are worth waiting for they say. Unfortunately for some things, the wait is all they bring.
Over the years there have been a number of games that generated considerable fanfare and expectation upon their announcement, and sure enough that anticipation continued to build as time progressed, only to end in a big old pile of nothing.
These games have been stuck in development purgatory for so long that one would imagine all hope of their salvation has evaporated under the pressure of budget cuts, studio layoffs, and a host of other stumbling blocks that may have gotten too big to ever cross.
Perhaps the most baffling part about these indefinite delays is that even beloved franchises and big-money titles are not exempt. Many of these games would have been installments in popular franchises and expanded their universes, lore, and quite possibly the fandoms. They would have been expected to deliver strong numbers for their studios. And yet the limbo curse did not spare them.
From Star Wars to Tekken, the list of games we can probably forget about ever getting to play is long and populated by famous names.
20. Tekken x Street Fighter
To be fair with this one, limbo is a generous term as it is teetering on the edge of cancelled. But with the game’s developer not confirming a cancellation and insisting the game is simply delayed indefinitely, it still makes this list.
Originally announced in 2010, Tekken x Street Fighter was set to bring together the rosters from its two constituent universes. Development began at Bandai Namco, as they set about creating the star-studded crossover that would bring Street Fighter characters to 3D life in Tekken’s signature gameplay. By 2016 however, things had ground to a halt as Tekken head honcho Katsuhiro Harada told Gamespot that development had been paused due to fears of the crossover harming the success of other projects such as Street Fighter V and Tekken 7.
Ironically, the success of Tekken 7 in particular became a big roadblock for Tekken x Street Fighter. With Tekken 7 becoming a big hit and receiving a steady stream of updates, Harada publicly admitted that diverting resources to another game while one was doing so well was no longer justified. In 2021, the final nail appeared to be delivered when translations suggested Harada had confirmed the cancellation on his talk show Harada’s Bar. But that proved to be a false alarm as the man himself later clarified he had been mistranslated and that the while development remained paused at around 30% completion, the game was in fact not cancelled.