Nothing brings more disappointment than waiting for a highly-anticipated game that everyone thinks will be amazing, then canceled almost instantly. You never got to know it, but you still feel like you’re missing out on something great. You even prepared your gaming laptop or PC in anticipation of the game. These are just a faint imagined memory of adventures that never happened.

So, what games broke the heart of excited gaming laptop and PC gamers?

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Patriots

Patriots was supposed to address the issues plaguing a stagnant franchise. It promised a great narrative that broke away from the standard story used by the past games in the series. The game also said that it would showcase interactive elements. It was going to deliver a great story and gameplay but still, Ubisoft wasn’t confident about what it can offer to players compared to what they had lined up for the new generation of games that came out at the time. They decided to scrap the game for Rainbow Six Siege because of its multiplayer focus. Sure, Siege has better gameplay than what Patriots could have given, but it doesn’t have the strong story elements that Patriots had.

Six Days in Fallujah

Six Days in Fallujah is a tactical shooting game about the Second Battle of Fallujah. The battle was one of the most intense urban fighting experience by the US Military since the Vietnam War. Hundreds of US and British soldiers, as well as thousands of Iraqi civilians, died from it. Needless to say, people thought it was an insensitive game that attempted to cash in on a tragedy.

The thing that people didn’t know was that the game was already planned way before the battle had happened. A lot of Marines signed up as consultants for it. Most of the consultants even ended up fighting in the battle mentioned. Upon returning, the Marines wanted to use the game as a platform to show the world how it was for them. The backlash against the game was strong, fast, and loud. They saw the game as insensitive and was imagined to be a way to encourage young Muslim fanatics to seek revenge after seeing it.

The game didn’t push through with the publication of the game. But it’s a lot like it considering how it all turned out.

LMNO

Imagine a narrative-driven game to be made by the great Steven Spielberg. That was a game worth waiting for. The very little footage of the game that was released looked like it was going to be good. LMNO promised an emotionally-plotted game in the first-person view that has parkour-based escape mechanics with RPG elements. It also bears repeating; it was going to be helmed by Steven Spielberg.

But EA Games canceled it. They cited that over-ambition and dissatisfaction towards the demo video presented to the EA Executives. The game was re-skinned into a new game but dropped a second time due to EA’s fascination with multiplayer games at the time.

Prey 2

If there are any sad game development stories, Prey 2’s story would be in the top ten. It had a great E3 showing that it made people confident that small production company, Human Head, will have a hit on their hands. The popular game developer, Bethesda, provided funding as a show of how much they believed in it.

Then, Bethesda stopped the funding. They denied that it was canceled, saying that it was merely slowing down development to keep things in line with their idea of quality. Then they took it away from Human Head, moved it two different studios but inevitably canceled.

Star Wars 1313

Touted to be the perfect Star Wars game, the game had more promise than all the other games mentioned combined. Instead of focusing on lightsabers and Force powers, you play as famous Boba Fett. It’s all about guns and gadgets, set in the seedy underbelly of Coruscant’ crime-infested bowels.

Hearts broke when Lucasfilm shut down its game studio, LucasArts. Meaning the game that everyone was excited about went down with the ship, along with other greats that the studio has produced over the years.

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Do you have a game that you were looking forward to but was either canceled or in development hell? Everyone has one. Share yours in the comments.