10 Iconic Video Games You Almost Lost To Development Hell
9. Prey
3D Realms just weren't having a good time in the late 90s. With two titles, Prey and Duke Nukem Forever, stuck in a never-ending cycle of production hell, the team simply wasnt making any substantial progress on either. Beginning development in 1995, Prey was supposed to be a new cutting-edge franchise that would showcase the developers' own game engine. Unfortunately, work on the new IP ceased in 1999 when the titles lead developer left the studio. However, after a short hiatus 3D Realms restarted production once again in 2001 with the help of Human Head Studios, but even then it was another fouryears before the game was officially unveiled to the public. And after that, the game spent another year in development before finally releasing on the Xbox 360 and PC in 2006; a whole 11 years after the title first went into production. For a while the games sequel was suffering the same tumultuous fate, before it was officially cancelled by new publisher Bethesda in 2014.
Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.
