20 Ridiculous Reasons Video Games Were Cancelled
2. It Was "Too Linear" For EA - Project Ragtag
Project Ragtag was a third-person Star Wars-themed AAA action-adventure game from Dead Space developer Visceral Games - a story-driven heist-centric romp set following the events of Star Wars IV: A New Hope.
Even more promisingly, the game was being directed by Uncharted co-creator Amy Hennig, implying it would offer a high level of cinematic polish.
Project Ragtag was publicly unveiled in 2016 when it was already three years into development, though EA apparently began to lose interest in the project following the colossal commercial success of 2015's multiplayer-focused Star Wars Battlefront.
Resources were then siphoned away from Ragtag to work on Battlefront II, until Visceral itself was closed in late 2017.
At this point Ragtag was handed off to EA Vancouver, where Hennig's original version of the game was effectively scrapped, with a new version intended to be a less-linear, open-world title, per EA's declining interest in linear single-player games.
However, by early 2019 this iteration was also cancelled, as EA shifted to focus on the development of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - a cinematic single-player game with a Metroidvania-esque level structure.
Much as publishers want to chase the open-world dragon for every last cent, there is absolutely still an audience for more linear narrative-led games that don't demand 50 hours of the player's time.
To see this frankly awesome-looking game canned because it wasn't following yawn-inducing trends was hugely depressing.