10 Video Games That Were Cancelled (But Not Why You Think)
3. EA Refused To Sell It To Other Publishers - Thrill Kill
Why You Thought It Was Cancelled
There are few cancelled video games more infamous than Thrill Kill, the gratuitously violent and hyper-sexual PS1 fighting game that was basically finished when it was cancelled, with discussions of a sequel already underway.
The popularly accepted reason for Thrill Kill's cancellation was a result of EA acquiring the game's North American distributor Virgin Interactive, and that EA scrapped the game after balking at its graphic content. However, the situation was somehow even more aggravating than that.
Why It Was Actually Cancelled
This wasn't merely an open-and-shut case where EA acquired Virgin and threw Thrill Kill in the bin - they not only refused to release it themselves due to the potential PR fiasco but were so worried about catching flak for being associated with the game that they wouldn't even sell it on to other publishers.
Despite receiving offers from other prominent outfits such as Eidos Interactive, EA were so pathologically concerned with the "bad look" of the mainstream media connecting them to Thrill Kill that they wouldn't even offload the title to another publisher and get paid for it.
EA of all companies saying no to money is frankly mind-boggling, while Thrill Kill was ultimately leaked and circulated on piracy websites a short while later.
Developer Paradox Entertainment ended up reskinning Thrill Kill for the 1999 fighting game Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style, and consequently used Thrill Kill's beat 'em up engine as the foundation for numerous titles they released thereafter.