10 Decisions That Killed Video Game Sequels EVERYBODY Wanted

Sleeping Dogs began development under United Front Games as Black Lotus, an open-world action game that publisher Activision folded into their True Crime franchise. As a competitor to the Grand Theft Auto series, True Crime: Streets of LA was decent but barely made a dent into GTA's dominance of the open-world genre.

United Front continued to work on the game, known as True Crime: Hong Kong, until the rights were eventually purchased by Square-Enix. Now known as Sleeping Dogs, the game became something quite special.

Though its sales weren't mind-blowing, Square saw a lot of potential in the IP and put United Front to work on a sequel. Intended to be one of the most ambitious open-world games the industry had ever seen, Sleeping Dogs 2 took place in a real-life megacity known as the Pearl River Delta.

This protracted development lead to United Front leaving their magnum opus on the table, opting to put their budget into Triad Wars; an MMO developed for PC that entered a beta phase in 2015, but left the Sleeping Dogs fanbase feeling rather numb.

With no traction on the MMO side, United Front announced an abrupt closure and the end of Sleeping Dogs 2.