10 Video Games That Languished In Development For Years

4. Too Human (2008)

LA Noire Development Time
Silicon Knights

Development Time: 9 Years (1999-2008)

Back in 1999, fans were excited about the prospect of playing Too Human on the Sony PlayStation. Unfortunately, the game wasn't released for that platform, and this caused a nightmare of delays resulting in the title's coding for multiple generations of platforms over the course of nearly a decade.

When it wasn't released on the PlayStation in 1999, it was then programmed for a release on the Nintendo GameCube in 2000. That never happened, and the game continued to be developed until the rights were sold to Microsoft in 2005.

When it was in Microsoft's hands, Too Human began a new development cycle as an Xbox 360 title, but it would take another three years before it was finally released in August 2008.

Too Human was originally planned to be the first game of a trilogy, which would tell the tale of a futuristic Norse mythology of cybernetically enhanced humans, but the game wasn't well received. Thanks to a costly lawsuit over the use of Unreal Engine 3, the financial damage closed the book on the franchise for good. Ultimately, the development for Too Human cost an estimated $100 million over nine years, but it never achieved enough success to make anywhere near that amount.

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Jonathan is a graphic artist, illustrator, writer, and game designer. Jonathan retired from the U.S. Army in 2017 and enjoys researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects. He writes for ScreenRant, CBR, NerdBastards, Listverse, Ranker, WhatCulture, and many other sites online. You can check out his latest on Twitter: @TalkingBull or on his blog: jonathanhkantor.com