10 Video Games Supposed To Release On Other Consoles
When things don't go according to plan.
Though many things can change during a video game's development, it isn't common that games end up shifting from their original target platform.
Moving a game from one console to another can be extremely resource-intensive due to the differing system architecture of gaming hardware, and so developers will generally avoid it all costs.
These 10 games, however, made the bold leap mid-production, changing-up their home system while already deep into development.
In some cases it was the result of a troubled project which bounced between publishers, while in others it was nothing more than a canny commercial decision to get more eyes on the game.
Though these games are all thoroughly emblematic of the systems and gaming generations they eventually ended up releasing for, things were nearly very different had the developer persevered with their initial vision - for better or worse.
While we can never know quite what would've become of these games had they not made the leap to other hardware, in most cases the end result clearly turned out well enough...
10. Perfect Dark Zero
Perfect Dark was one of the N64's last truly great games, and its immense critical and commercial success ensured that Rare soon enough got to work on a follow-up.
What would eventually become Perfect Dark Zero began development for the GameCube with a team of just 10 people, but with Nintendo having a 49% stake in Rare, the developers were free to be acquired by whoever gave a desirable offer.
In 2002, while Zero was in the early prototyping stage, Microsoft purchased Rare, causing the game to switch development from GameCube to the Xbox, with Microsoft planning for it to take full advantage of their groundbreaking Xbox Live multiplayer framework.
Though Rare managed to get 50-player online matches running with major technical compromises, the decision was ultimately made to again shift the game to another console, this time to Microsoft's impending Xbox 360.
At this stage, Perfect Dark Zero was reportedly about a year away from being ready to release on the original Xbox.
In the end, the game hit stores as a 360 launch title, and despite scoring broadly positive reviews, most fans and critics agreed it fell short of the high bar set by its predecessor.