Video games are often announced years in advance, but that is no guarantee that they'll ever actually be released. As seen with the Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time remake and the Perfect Dark reboot, highly anticipated games can easily be cancelled for a variety of reasons. However, it's almost more frustrating when they're not cancelled but you just never hear about them again, or if you do it's with vague updates that never reveal a release date.
For the optimistic dreamers, here are 15 games which still have a chance of coming out but have been floating in gaming purgatory for years without any substantial news. Some are technically-not-cancelled pipedreams, while others are one step removed from vapourware, but there's at least a chance that any of the following could still be released.
Star Wars Eclipse
This branching narrative action adventure title from Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream was announced at The Game Awards in 2021 but hasn't been shown since. In May this year, the team cancelled another project, Spellcasters Chronicles, but promised development on Star Wars Eclipse was 'not affected by this decision and continues as planned'. However, subsequent reports suggest the project is at risk. French union group STJV have called for strikes against Quantic Dream to give better compensation for roughly 115 employees laid off at the studio in the wake of Spellcasters Chronicles' cancellation. The union's blog posts claim Star Wars Eclipse's development is 'proving just as complicated'. While it's unclear what that means exactly, it's not technically cancelled.
Little Devil Inside
Developed by Neostream Interactive, this 19th century indie action adventure has become an elusive mystery. It was originally revealed via a Kickstarter campaign in April 2015 (with the Wii U listed as a release platform), before it was later seen in September 2020 during a Sony event, where it gained a lot of fans following its impressive trailer. It was slated for release in 2022 at one point, but when that came and went, many believed it had been cancelled. However, the team provided an update on Kickstarter in 2024, after years of silence, where they suggested internal conflict had led to the game's delay. 'So now, we're back to a smaller, bonded team with a single, common purpose – just to make a great game,' the post reads. Along with shifting the project to Unreal Engine 5, the team said discussions regarding publishing were underway, but two years have passed since that update.
Light No Fire
Developer Hello Games pulled off an impressive turnaround with No Man's Sky, after marketing controversies and a troubled launch, but there's an air of growing concern around its next major project, Light No Fire. It was announced at The Game Awards 2023, but development on the project began in 2018 – so it's been cooking for some time. The studio might be staying quiet to avoid the same controversy of unfulfilled promises which bogged No Man's Sky, but after almost three years of silence, it's now become a long-gestating anomaly which could prove to be too ambitious for its own good.
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic remake
A remake of BioWare's classic role-player was announced in 2021, led by Aspyr. However, it has since switched hands to Saber Interactive, and is reportedly being worked on by the same team behind Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival. We've still seen nothing from the remake beyond the initial trailer five years ago, but Saber's chief content officer, Tim Willits, confirmed it still exists in March this year. Beyond that, a rumour suggests it could be re-revealed later this year. The peculiar thing about the whole project is that Lucasfilm keep hiring developers with no experience with big budget action role-players. Aspyr only really do remasters and while Saber are generally more experienced it's still not really their wheelhouse, which no doubt explains the delays.
Beyond Good & Evil 2
If you're looking to define development hell, Ubisoft's prequel to Beyond Good & Evil has become the most famous example. Beyond Good & Evil 2 was originally announced in 2008, and after being in the works for over 15 years, it is the game with the longest development time ever – a record previously held by 2011's Duke Nukem Forever. The game was re-revealed during Ubisoft's E3 conference in 2017, a decade after its initial announcement, but it's now been almost eight years since then. There have been some complications behind the scenes over recent years though. Original series creator Michel Ancel left Ubisoft in 2020 and then Emile Morel, the game's creative director, died suddenly, aged 40. Fawsi Mesmar was appointed as a replacement a year later, in 2024. In June 2026, Ubisoft brand director, Loïc Gounon, told Polygon the game was still being worked on, but after a nearly 20-year wait, it's difficult to tell if this follow-up to a niche cult classic will make any kind of splash, if it does ever come out.
System Shock 3
A follow-up to 1999's System Shock 2 was announced in 2015, but the project still hasn't materialised. It was in development for years at Otherside Entertainment, but in 2020, the studio announced Chinese conglomerate Tencent was 'taking the System Shock franchise forward' in a bid to help fund the sequel – although it was unclear what this meant considering the original team had stopped working on it. Since then, nothing more has been heard. However, Nightdive Studios, who own the rights to the first two System Shock games, clarified last year that the rights to System Shock 3 had been sold to Tencent – so it's up to them to decide its future. Speaking to VGC in 2025, Nightdive's director of business development, Larry Kuperman, said an update on the series' future could come 'potentially within a year' – but that crumb of hope is starting to fade.
Marvel's Iron Man
A single-player game centred around Marvel's Iron Man was announced by EA in 2022, from Motive Studio. Its prospects, however, took a hit when a 'group' of developers at the studio were shifted onto Battlefield 6 two years later, although EA insisted Iron Man was still 'an important priority' and its development was continuing in parallel. We've heard little about the project since, and following the cancellation of EA's Black Panther project, which was announced at the same time, and the company's buyout, there's concern Iron Man could be on the chopping block to help eliminate EA's new $20 billion debt.
Splinter Cell remake
Ubisoft has baited Splinter Cell fans for years with Sam Fisher crossovers in Rainbow Six Siege and Ghost Recon, but after it did finally announce a remake of the original in 2021, the company has only ever shared some concept art of the project. It's been so long, the remake's director, David Grivel, left his position and then had time to come back again, during the span of its creation. Some reports have suggested it could still be released sometime soon, but considering all the recent structural shifts at Ubisoft, it wouldn't be surprising if this is still a few years away.
Bioshock 4
Cloud Chamber has been working on BioShock 4 since 2019, but nothing has ever been shown of it. Last year, the studio underwent a change in leadership, with Rod Fergusson, who helped complete development on Bioshock Infinite, being drafted in to lead the team. Take Two's CEO Strauss Zelnick has expressed his disappointment over Bioshock 4's delay. Speaking in May this year, Zelnick said: 'I think we, in retrospect, wasted a lot of time and money chasing down some creative alleys that turned out to be dead ends.' We don't have any clarification on what these 'dead ends' are (there was a leak about the game being set in Antarctica, so maybe that didn't work out) but in comparison to others on this list, this sequel has some kind of pulse at least.
DokeV
Before the world knew about Crimson Desert, developer Pearl Abyss announced an open world monster-collecting game called DokeV. It's bright, musical, and clearly aimed at the Pokémon crowd, and is generally the complete opposite of the developer's other game. Details have been sparse since its original reveal in 2019, aside from a trailer at Gamescom Opening Night Live in 2021. However, in May this year, Pearl Abyss confirmed the project has entered pre-production, suggesting it could launch in 2028. In other words, all the prior trailers were for a game that didn't exist yet and work has barely begun.
Project Awakening
For Monster Hunter and Dragon's Dogma fans, Project Awakening's protracted development has been an ongoing sore point. It was originally announced back in 2018, with a trailer showing an armoured man fighting a giant lizard creature. It's by Cygames Osaka, the team behind Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and in July 2026, after years of silence, the company's president Koichi Watanabe confirmed it still exists, stating that it is 'progressing steadily'. Slow and steady may win the race, but at some point, you have to question what the turtle's been doing this whole time.
The Last Night
It's been nine years since The Last Night's trailer caused a stir at E3 2017, but it blew up for the wrong reasons in the aftermath. Tweets from 2014 by the game's director, Tim Soret, were dug up shortly afterwards, which showed him supporting Gamergate and disparaged feminism, while themes in the game's premise were interpreted as supporting a right wing ideology. Soret backtracked on the comments and refuted how the game's message had been perceived. He was supported by publisher Raw Fury at the time, but the game's prolonged development threw up more obstacles. In 2019, Soret's studio Odd Tales said it was facing legal and funding issues – after they parted ways with Raw Fury in 2018. The last update on the game's website was in 2024, and while it's believed to be still in development it's unclear when it will eventually resurface.
Deep Down
The whereabouts of this sci-fi action role-player has become a long-running mystery amongst Capcom fans. It was announced for the PlayStation 4 in 2013, and despite not being publicly shown since then, it has endured as a long lost project which has never technically been cancelled. There's still hope Capcom could revive the project, much like Pragmata, but the chances of it making a comeback do seem slim – especially following the departure of the game's producer, Yoshinori Ono, from Capcom in 2020. It's not even clear whether it was a proper game project and not just a tech demo for what would become Capcom's RE Engine.
Tekken X Street Fighter
2012's Street Fighter X Tekken may have failed to set the world alight, but some are still holding out hope for its reverse crossover sibling. Tekken X Street Fighter was announced in 2010, but Bandai Namco put its development on hold in 2016. Former Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada said development stopped on the title when it was around '30% done'. After reports circulated that it had been cancelled in 2021, Harada refuted this, saying he was 'hopeful' the title would one day 'resume development'. With Harada having now left Bandai Namco, however, it's unclear if it will ever be revived.
Ark 2
Ark: Survival Evolved has become a quiet juggernaut, hence why a sequel was announced in 2020 starring Vin Diesel. It has been delayed countless times since then and, in December last year, Studio Wildcard gave it a new release window of 2028. Whether it will actually come out in 2028, and if it will still feature the Fast & Furious star riding dinosaurs, is a different matter entirely. Before then, the studio is planning to launch new content for its predecessor, including a major expansion called Legacy Of Santiago by the end of 2027.
