9 Video Game Demos That Totally Lied To You

3. Spore (GDC 2005)

It's been a whole decade since Maxis' hugely-anticipated Spore was released, and the strategy life sim remains one of the most dishearteningly malnourished AAA releases of all time.

Spore's production was arduous enough that there's even a Wikipedia page devoted to its development, and after eight years of work, the final game that hit stores was a far cry from what the developer had promised years prior.

The game's stunning GDC 2005 demo illustrated a ton of features that were cut from the final game, namely four extra stages (including the much-hyped City Stage and Aquatic Stage), a number of powerful editors allowing players to extensively customise their experience, a deeper and more realistic version of the Space Stage, and creatures that both looked less cutesy and behaved more dynamically.

Ultimately a combination of scope creep and pressure to push the game in a more commercial, family-friendly direction resulted in Spore drifting away from its audacious original vision. The final result was a disappointingly scant offering where player interest evaporated after just a few hours.