10 Iconic Video Games You Almost Lost To Development Hell

8. Alan Wake

First announced as a Microsoft exclusive in 2004, Remedy€™s Alan Wake was supposed to be the Xbox 360€™s big new killer app when it released. From the guys who had just come off the fan favourite Max Payne 2, Remedy€™s new title was to be an epic open world psychological horror game €“ but then plans changed. At some point during development the team ditched the open world setting. Although the idea is still present in the final release (the title€™s driving sections between locations acts as a leftover feature from those early prototypes), Remedy instead changed the focus of the game, opting to create a more linear and traditional third person shooter. Finally hitting store shelves in 2010, the Alan Wake that arrived was a much less ambitious title than the developers had originally planned, and although it was still an incredibly refined release, there was nothing in the game that really justified the lengthy development period. Unfortunately, PC players had to wait even longer to get their hands on the game, with that edition not releasing until 2012, a full 8 years after work officially began on the project.