Even simple video games can be long and arduous to develop. There are many different disciplines that go into making a game and these disciplines tend to have little overlap in terms of relevant skills, if at all, and the issues are only worsened with more expensive AAA releases, which typically run on larger, but stricter budgets and tighter schedules.
Every video game has had some kind of setback when it comes to its development cycle, however, other games tend to have it much worse. Sometimes games can be held up for so long that it is a miracle that they ever release at all. Sometimes the wait is worth it but, other times, the stress of the project is too much for the people who worked on it.
10 Team Fortress 2 Took 9 Years To Develop
Team Fortress 2 has been such a huge staple of PC gaming for so long that it has become archetypical of the online shooter. It is the sequel to one of the first stories of games that started at mods. Team Fortress started life as a Quake mod and turned out to be a major success. The sequel was announced at E3 1999 and was shown as a more serious military shooter, not unlike the Battlefield games.
After this initial reveal, the game went radio silent for five years, with many assuming it was canceled. Suddenly, it was revealed once more at EA Summer Showcase in 2006, completely transformed into the game we know today.
9 The Last Guardian Was Considered Vaporware For Some Time
Shortly after the launch of the PS3, Team Ico announced The Last Guardian. Director Fumito Ueda, famous for working on Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, wanted to create a game that centered around human/creature relationships. The game had a demo at E3 2009 but, immediately following that show, the game ran into development troubles and there were almost no updates on it.
Sony assigned more teams to help with the game, but the departure of many Team Ico devs, including Ueda himself, only worsened the issues. Ultimately, the game was finally able to come out in 2016 to generally favorable reception.
8 Too Human Was A Nightmare To Develop
2008's Too Human is potentially the most famous example of a game being stuck in development. Initially planned to release on the Playstation, the game was passed on to the Gamecube, then to the Xbox 360. The game was a nightmare to develop, finally releasing in 2008 to universally negative reception.
Even after the game was released, the issues with its development plagued the dev team Silicon Knights as a lawsuit with Epic Games over the game engine, resulting in the developers paying over $4 million and mandating all copies of Too Human to be recalled.
7 Final Fantasy XV Was A Little Too Ambitious
Ever since its inception, Final Fantasy XV was meant to be an extremely ambitious project. It started life as a spinoff of Final Fantasy XIII before turning into its own project. A lot of the game's concepts were reworked to be part of its own self-contained story, and after a 10-year development cycle, the game was finally released in 2016.
Though it has its fans, many criticized the game for feeling incomplete, with a lot of the story being locked behind a CGI movie that had to be paid for separately. Ultimately, interest in the game died out and the final DLC chapters for the game were canceled.
6 Diablo III Was Held Up By Office Politics
Diablo III started development in 2001, exactly one year after Diablo II was released to major success. Unfortunately, development was held up due to conflict between the development team, Blizzard North, and then the parent company, Vivendi. Things had gotten so bad that the studio was closed down in 2005, leaving Diablo III in a state of limbo for some time.
At the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in 2008, the game was revealed once more, but it still took another four years to finally be released. Unfortunately, Diablo III received a mixed reception at best, with much criticism over its art style and DRM policies.
5 Prey Was in Development For 11 Years
Though the sequel, Prey 2 is probably more famous for its numerous development troubles, the original Prey is notable for starting development in 1995 and not seeing the light of day until 2006. The game was meant to be a showcase of 3D Realms' in-house engine, a massive undertaking in itself.
However, the development would become more troubled as team leader Tom Hall left the company with John Romero to form Ion Storm. This left Prey to flounder in its development cycle for several more years until its release. Its sequel was immediately planned but fell into further troubles before being canceled.
4 Mother 3 Was Too Much For Consoles At The Time
The Japan-exclusive Mother 3, was initially meant to release on the SNES, but struggled to progress due to technical limitations. The team then shifted focus to the Nintendo 64, then the Gamecube, but problems persisted. These technical issues stemmed from the game wanting to focus on a town dynamically growing over time, a technically demanding concept.
This, along with the initial desire to design the game in 3D, was proving to be far too costly than it would be worth. After switching back to a 2D style, the game was finally able to come out in 2006 for the Gameboy Advance.
3 Duke Nukem: Forever Was In Development For 15 Years
Another famous example of games stuck in development, Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be the grand follow-up to Duke Nukem 3D. The game would release its first gameplay footage in 1997, and things seemed to be going smoothly. Unfortunately, what would follow would be more than a decade of financial troubles, infighting within the dev team, and conflict with many parent companies who tried to fund the project.
When the game was finally released in 2011, it was universally panned. It received horrible reviews from critics and was a monumental financial failure.
2 Star Fox 2 Was Released 20 Years Later
Star Fox 2 was, like the original Star Fox, meant to be a showcase of the power of its console the SNES. The game was meant to try out many new gameplay ideas, such as random encounters, strategic maps, a two-player mode, and even platforming sections. The game had apparently progressed through development quickly and was almost finished.
However, at the time, the 3D market was rapidly growing, and Nintendo wanted to shift focus to its upcoming Nintendo 64 console. The game was scrapped and wouldn't release for 20 years when the SNES Classic came out.
1 UnReal World Has Been In Development For 26 Years
UnReal World claims to be the first roguelike sandbox RPG created by a two-man team based in Finland. The game had finished its first build in 1992 and was released as shareware. For the next several years, the dev team would add more expansions to the game and, after 26 years, was finally available for purchase in 2016 to moderate success and extremely positive reception, with many players praising the game's depth and immersion.
The game has earned a couple of accolades in its time, and still receives regular updates to this day, adding more mechanics and fixes.