With the recent announcement that ‘The Last Guardian’ is still in development we were wondering whether or not Team Ico’s project has the longest development cycle of any game ever, the results show that there are plenty of other games which were stuck in development hell, some for almost an eternity.
GTA 5- 4 Years
Grand Theft Auto 5 was in development for a long time with a lot of people working on it. The development was spread among multiple studios with over 1000 people. GTA 5’s development cycle was also famous for its reportedly high budget of around £170,000,000. While GTA 5 seem as if it took forever to finally be released, the development cycle certainly was not as bad as the other titles on this list.
Ride To Hell Retribution- 5 Years
Ride To Hell is definitely the least liked title on this list and rightfully so because this game was shocking. Ride To Hell was announced in 2008 and then cancelled in 2009, the game should have remained that way because resurrecting the title from development was the worst decision Deep Silver has ever made. The title eventually released in 2013 to a widespread panning from everyone on planet earth
Alan Wake- 6 Years
Alan Wake is a superb title from the makers of the upcoming Xbox One exclusive, Quantom Break. The game definitely spent a long time in the oven, clocking in at roughly six years. The reason for this was due to the title originally being developed as an open-world game but the game was redesigned to create a more linear experience.
Too Human- 9 Years
Too human has one of the most interesting development cycles in history. Firstly the game was being developed for the Playstation 1 but then the publishers decided that the title should be released for the Gamecube instead, ultimately though Too Human was never released for Nintendo’s Gamecube and was actually released in 2008 on the Xbox 360. You would think that the continuous upgrading of hardware would have negative effects on the final product and you would be right because Too Human was widely panned by critics.
Prey- 11 Years
Prey was originally shown off to the public back in the 20th century at an E3 in the 1990s. The game had an impressive debut but fans would have to wait for a very, very long time until they could actually play the game. After years and years of development a new studio called Human Head Studios ended up finishing the project and releasing it to the masses. Thankfully the game was well received and in traditionally Prey fashion its sequel, Prey 2, spent a massive amount of time in development. Prey 2 was ultimately cancelled in late 2014.
Duke Nukem Forever- 15 Years
There is a reason why Duke Nukem Forever has its name; this is because the game took also forever to be released. Duke Nukem Forever was stuck in development hell for longer than almost every other media product which has been sent there. So after such a long development cycle fans were expecting an absolute masterpiece but what fans got was less-than-stellar.
The Last Guardian- ? Years
The Last Guardian constantly remains to be one of the most interesting games that Playstation has on its roster, even though we have not seen anything from Team Ico since 2009. Every E3 people constantly wonder if The Last Guardian will make a triumphant comeback but unfortunately for the past 4 E3s in addition to multiple TGSs, Gamescoms and other trade shows we still have not seen a snippet of The Last Guardian. Who knows when the The Last Guardian will be released. 2015? 2020? 2050? Some day we will be able to play The Last Guardian and when that day comes we will hopefully be playing a Prey 2 or Alan Wake, not a Ride To Hell Retribution.
There are several other titles which we did not mention including the likes of Darkfall online, Star Trek, The Elder Scrolls 3 and more. Did we miss any other games that were stuck in development hell? Tell us in the comments below.
