Whether it's because there aren't enough resources to fulfill the developers' huge ambitions or because they have more interest in their other properties, developers canceling games is a surprisingly common occurrence. So many games that could have changed the industry were just thrown away.
Not only that, but the games that were canceled were often long-awaited follow-ups to beloved games. And other times, they were projects with potentially game-changing stealth mechanics. Between several canned Rockstar projects, sequels to indie darlings, and a massively in-demand Portal sequel, there's so much wasted potential lying around on hard drives.
Bully 2
Rockstar's Bully was often looked at as a PG version of Grand Theft Auto, as players controlled Jimmy, who enrolled at the private school Bullworth Academy and roamed around the campus and the surrounding town. However, it's so much more than a GTA clone, as the unique, spooky town of Bullworth was so detailed, and even the seasons changed as players progressed through the game.
There have been so many swirling rumors about a Bully sequel, whether it was the composer returning to score Bully 2 or that there were casting calls as recent as 2018. And the first game has a huge enough of a fanbase that it'd be successful too, but as the developer, Rockstar, became so busy with GTA V and its Online counterpart, a Bully sequel just stopped being a priority.
Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure 2
Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure was a fascinating third-person adventure game with an incredible niche concept. It followed an amateur graffiti artist who rose through the ranks of artists. The game wasn't as popular as annual the likes of Call of Duty, but it was still successful enough to get a sequel greenlit.
In 2013, fans got excited when Ecko Unlimited tweeted that it was currently developing a sequel. But as that was nine years ago at this point, it's safe to say that the follow-up has been scrapped. A sequel would have been great to see because the game does such a great job of world-building, as it's all based around the Orwellian city of New Radius, and graffiti was used as a way to protest against the tyrannical dictatorship of the city's mayor.
TimeSplitters 4
The cancelation of TimeSplitters 4 is one that still hurts most fans. There was such a strong TimeSplitters fanbase, as they managed to get three games into the series, and each consecutive game furthered the lore and abilities of time travel. Not only that, but the series has also been very tongue-in-cheek and satirical, and it looked like Timesplitters 4 was going to run with that too. According to GamesRadar, in 2008, teasers were sent out of the iconic TimeSplitters monkey parodying Halo and Gears of War.
It's even more disappointing for fans because there have been so many other hints that a sequel could arrive. However, after Free Radical's disappointing Haze and the developer then going bankrupt, any hope of TimeSplitters 4 was over. And the leaked concept art of the game's locations in 2018, as reported by EuroGamer, was just rubbing salt in the wounds.
We Are The Mods
Bully 2 isn't the only game that Rockstar threw to the wayside mid-development to focus on their treasured Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. Just like Bully 2, We Are The Mods was a planned sequel, or at least a spiritual sequel, to The Warriors. The Warriors is a prequel to the '70s movie of the same name, which follows different gangs at war in New York, and it's one of the many great forgotten Rockstar games.
Following the game's modest success, according to Kotaku, the spiritual sequel was going to be based in 1960's Britain during the wars between the Mods and Rockers. The development of the sequel was kept so secretive that nobody even knew it existed until after it was binned.
Split/Second 2
Split/Second is one of the most creative racing games to be released on the PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as every track takes place in a dystopian city full of destruction, most of which can be caused by the players. Each race is part of a reality show, effectively lowkey playing out like Squid Game, as players risk their lives to win.
At the very end of the career mode, it's revealed that the reality show had been off-air the whole time, which is followed by mysterious construction vehicles destroying the city. It then cut to the words, "to be continued..." While the sequel was in development, it seems like fans will never find out what actually happened. According to EuroGamer, the developer Black Rock Studio was downscaled by Disney, and it just wasn't possible to continue making the sequel due to the lack of resources.
Agent
Being yet another canceled Rockstar game, it sounds like one of the most original, as Agent was set in the '70s and had a Cold War backdrop. The game would be especially refreshing to see now, as there hasn't been an original Rockstar game since L.A. Noire in 2011. Unfortunately, the game was canceled for unknown reasons.
But apparently, most of the ideas and concepts for the game weren't abandoned but used for Grand Theft Auto V. It's likely that gamers have already played through those concepts in the celebrated 2013 game. However, that also makes fans wonder how many other abandoned video games GTA V absorbed, as there are probably concepts from Bully 2 and We Are The Mods in there too.
Fez 2
Unlike many of the other canceled games, Fez wasn't a AAA release, but a two-man indie project. Despite the low budget, the game turned out to be a smash hit due to being groundbreaking in puzzle-platforming gameplay.
Fans wanted nothing more than a sequel to the indie hit, and it was even announced at the end of the 2013 Horizon press conference. However, in a very public breakdown, according to Polygon, Phil Fish, the creator of Fez, argued with several members of the industry on Twitter. He then quickly announced the cancelation of the sequel and his existence from the gaming industry.
Batman: Arkham 5
With Batman being so oversaturated at the minute, as there are even going to be three different on-screen depictions of the character in 2022 alone, it's so difficult to do something revolutionary with the property. However, Rocksteady did exactly that with the Arkham video game series. The games were a mix of the dark and gritty tone of the Dark Knight trilogy and the eccentricity of Batman: The Animated Series.
Though Arkham Knight perfectly wrapped up the series, a sequel known as Project Sabbath was in the works. Many have speculated that it would have been Arkham's answer to God of War and that it would have featured a much darker Bruce Wayne. But in the end, the game was canned and fans will probably never find out why.
Portal 3
No game has left players more mind-blown and confused at the exact same time than Portal 2. And being in the same universe as the Half-Life series, there are so many important parts to the sci-fi story that's shrouded in mystery. With the two series being connected by the mysterious icebreaker the Borealis, which was being used as a research vessel and vanished decades beforehand, Portal 3 could have given fans the answer to what was inside it.
Though the Borealis is just one of many ways Valve could continue the story, it doesn't look like it'll ever happen. There was a Portal prequel in development, but it was canceled as Valve wanted to move back into software development. What's more frustrating is that the fairly newly released Half-Life: Alyx intentionally answers none of these questions.
Sleeping Dogs 2
When it comes to Grand Theft Auto clones, the mid-2000s were full of them, and there wasn't a month that went by without an open-world sandbox action game. One of the best was Sleeping Dogs, and it can hardly even be called a clone, as it had enough original ideas to stand on its own, such as the martial arts mechanics and the parkour gameplay. In 2013, a sequel was in development, and it sounded incredibly ambitious.
According to Vice Media, the game would have allowed players to arrest any NPC in the huge open world, but the project was scrapped when it was about to enter production. There wasn't just a canceled sequel, but a canceled spin-off too, as, according to GameSpot, Triad Wars was meant to be a massively multiplayer online game.