20 Ridiculous Reasons Video Games Were Cancelled

Thrill Kill was an ultra-violent fighting game developed by Paradox Development for the PlayStation, and was originally scheduled to be released by Virgin Interactive in October 1998.

However, after EA acquired part of Virgin's business operations, they in turn gained the publishing rights to Thrill Kill - a title they had little interest in actually releasing.

This was reportedly due to EA's desire to avoid publishing violent content which the media could easily use to stigmatise video games, and also their political connections to Senator Joe Lieberman, a staunch campaigner against violent games.

But EA not only refused to release the game, they also refused to sell it to anyone else, meaning that despite Thrill Kill being feature-complete, it was formally cancelled and has never been officially released.

Pirate copies of the game nevertheless found their way online shortly thereafter, and EA ultimately repurposed the gameplay for the 1999 game Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style.

All the same, EA's pearl-clutching over video game violence feels a little rich given that they later profited handsomely off extremely violent games like Dead Space, Dante's Inferno, Bulletstorm, and Battlefield - the latter being a franchise entirely centered around the glorification of brutal warfare.

At least sell the game's rights off to someone else, dammit.