Whenever your favorite game franchise announces a sequel or an entirely new game, there's hope that it'll launch soon. But when there are endless delays, a year turns into a decade, and anticipation becomes desperation that the game will exceed expectations because of the years put into it.
Unfortunately, some games seem to get stuck in development for what feels like forever. From 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Duke Nukem Forever to Final Fantasy 15, there are a whole host of games that took a decade to develop. While these games are stuck in a developmen🌺t rut for a number of different reasons, sometimes they end up being well worth the wait.
Updated March 234, 2023 by Jouanna Bondakji: As time passes, games are seeing longer development times compared to a few years ago. The exposure of crunch culture in the gaming industry has no doubt influenced this. Though waiting for a game you're excited about can be frustrating, there's no question that the physical and mental well-being of the ones developing the games is most important. However, not every reason is as simple and well-intentioned as taking care of employees' health. There are bound to be internal issues, conflicts, and even complete renewal of teams and managers that can delay games to the point of ridiculousness.
11 Diablo 3: 11 Yꦬears
Diablo 2 was always going to be hard to match, and that seemed to be a factor in Diablo 3 taking so long to make. According to , there were constant changes to ღthe main idea of Diablo 3 because the senior staff were never totally confident in their ideas. A lot of time was wasted developing concepts only🐟 to throw them away.
Also, though there were a lot of things they could have innovated, there was too much focus on making things exactly like the previous Diablo games. Diablo 3 eventually launched to mostly positive reception, but only after the backlash towꦍards and subsequent removal of a mechanic where players could use real money to buy and sell loot.
10 🐠 ൲ Metroid Dread: 15 Years
Though they may not be as prominent as something like Mario, the Metroid games are a beloved Nintendo series. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metroid Dread is the fifth mainline game, and before its pleasantly surprising announcement in 2021, it had originally been in development for the Nin🧔t✃endo DS before being canceled.
One of its creators, Yoshio Sakamoto, had some grand ideas but couldn't execute them due to the DS's limitations. That makes sense, as Nintendo hardware isn't exactly known for being powerful. But with the release of the Nintendo Switch, Sakamoto was finally able to realize his vision. It took a while, but both fans and developers won in this case.
9 UnRe💧al World: 20+ Years
UnReal World is a survival game that was nearly three decades in the making, with its ultimate 2016 launch on Steam. Even now, the game continues to receive constant updates. It's a roguelike RPG that takes inspiration from Finnish mythology and represents much of Finnish culture.
In the game, you are expected to survive in harsh and unforgivable terrain as best you can because anything from animals to weather can kill you. The reason UnReal World had taken so long to develop is that its team consists of just two people. Plus, it'd been in development since the 1990s, and their vision was seemingly too grand for what they could realistically achieve at the time. But despite its lengthy development, it seems ever🅘ything panned out since the game is ꧙acclaimed for its immersive and realistic elements.
8 ๊Star Fox 2: 20 Years
The spectacular success of168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Star Fox in 1993 encouraged both Argonaut and Nintend🦋o to create a sequel. Its successor, Star Fox 2, was already completed by 1997 but was not launched until 2017.
The reason for this was due to the increasing popularity of 3D gaming. The developers became less confident that their finished product could compare with other 3D games in the market. Instead, they focused their efforts on developing the Nintendo 64 and Star Fox 64. Ultimately, the game was canceled until ༒it was picked up again decades later, and its revival was♏ announced in 2017.
7 ♒ Psychonauts 2: 16 Years 𝓰
There were plans for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Psychonauts 2, but the game was scrapped due to the commercial failure of 2005's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Psychonauts. This was probably not🍃 because the original Psychonauts was a bad game but🅷 because of poor marketing decisions surrounding it.
However, Psychonauts had developed a cult following, and soon there was a desire to see a sequel. It wasn't until the 2015 Game Awards that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Double Fine announced its plans to start a crowdfunding campaign to fund Psychonauts 2's production, quickly reaching its intended target. Though there were delays, Psychonauts 2 was finally launched in 2021 with overall positive reviews.
6 Duke Nukem Forever: 15 Year🐠s 𒈔
Ironically, Duke Nukem Forever took what felt like forever to come to fruition. It was first announced in 1997, but severe delays and changes in development teams caused the game's launch to be delayed until 2011.
In the game, Duke Nukem must save the world from yet another alien invasion, but it seems the story had fallen flat and was quite dated by the time it came out in 2011. It appears that its delayed launch has caused the game to seem old-fashioned in terms of plot, in-game mechanics, and graphics.
5 ꧟ Mother 3: 12 ওYears
Mother 3 is the latest installment in the Mother series, and no one could have foreseen that it would take 12 years for the game to launch. Development started in 1994, and a demo of the game was displayed at the 19⛎99 Nintendo Trade Show. But in 2000, it was announced that the game was being canceled.
This was apparently because they needed resources for developing the GameCube at the time. Thankfully, the developers announced a continuation of the project in 2003. Despite delays and cancelations hampering its progress, the 2006 launch of Mother 3 was a smash hit.
4 Prey: 11 Years 🀅
Prey is a first-person shooter that follows the alien abduction of protagonist Tommy Tawodi, his girlfriend, and his grandfather. Tommy finds out he is⭕ special because of his ability to astral project and uses it tꦗo battle the aliens.
Although it was announced in 1995, this sci-fi game went through a series of design changes, along with a new in-game mechanic. Developing the engine to make this mechanic understandably took a while. Add the director leaving and needing to be replaced, as well as some trouble fine-tuning the mechanics, and you've got an answer to why it took so long to come out. After a few stops and starts over the years, the game was finally launched in 2006 to praise for its graphics and storyline.
3 Final Fan🅷tasy 15: 10 Years 💙
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Square Enix's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 15 un🤪doubtedly has a great cast of characters, although some feel the storyline surrounding it is not fleshed out well enough.
Final Fantasy 15's development went through a string of problems, starting in 2006 when the game was meant to be made for the PS3; the game changed hands and switched platforms eventually. As a result, Final Fantasy 15 had to be redone with a new storyline and a revamp of some of the characters before finally launching in 2016 for the next generation of consoles.
2 Star�♍� Citizen: Still Ongoing Since 2010
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Citizen has been in development since 2010, despite the launch of a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 as a taste of what's to come. A launch date had been slated for 2014, but the game is nowhere in sight almost a decade later.
The game's developers continue to pump out updates and raise funds. In November 2021, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:they raised up to US$400 million, but it seems things have come to a standstill. The developers' incessant crowdfunding has also triggered legal problems, with some investors backing out and not receiving their money back yet. Over a decade since pre-production began, it seems Star Citizen's launch is still a far-off dream.