Chaos Behind Screens
Some video games take forever to make. Like, actually forever. We're talking decade-long nightmares where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Studios collapsed, engines changed, and teams burned out. The gaming industry has seen its fair share of these development disasters, and the stories behind them are sometimes more entertaining than the finished product. So, here are 20 games that had absolutely disastrous development cycles.
Cyberpunk 2077 — Official Cinematic Trailer | E3 2019 by GameSpot (3:52)
1. Duke Nukem Forever
A textbook case of feature creep gone wild, Duke Nukem Forever's record-shattering fourteen-year development became gaming's greatest cautionary tale. The project's restless pursuit of newer technology—migrating from Quake to Quake II to Unreal—earned a Guinness title for longest video game development.
Duke Nukem Forever: Was it Really That Bad? by Guyinthetie
2. Too Human
While Silicon Knights envisioned this game as the first chapter of an epic trilogy on Xbox 360, reality had other plans for their PlayStation-turned-360 odyssey. Nine years of development chaos and an Unreal Engine lawsuit led to recalled games and bankruptcy papers.
Too Human Xbox Series X Gameplay Review [Free Game] by Skycaptin5
3. Aliens: Colonial Marines
A single misplaced letter in the code worked as the perfect symbol for Aliens: Colonial Marines' deeper issues. Twelve years of development, musical chairs between studios had created just enough chaos for deceptive demos and quality control mishaps to slip through unnoticed.
4. Cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt Red's management revealed a stark disconnect between soaring ambitions and operational realities during the troubled development of Cyberpunk 2077. Leadership pushed through engine changes while enforcing brutal crunch, yet rushed an unfinished product to market.
Cyberpunk 2077 — Official Cinematic Trailer | E3 2019 by GameSpot
5. Anthem
Named "Dylan" after music's legendary poet, Anthem's own song fell tragically flat. Its seven-year development spiral of leadership changes and reboots produced an incomplete launch missing vital features, while BioWare's attempted resurrection through Anthem NEXT became the project's discordant note.
Anthem Launch Trailer by Anthem Game
6. Daikatana
Engine limitations snowballed into a perfect storm during Daikatana's troubled genesis, as technical hurdles sparked internal team conflicts and spiraling delays. The desperate marketing gambit only spotlighted these struggles, overshadowing Romero's ambitious vision of time-traveling across four historical eras.
John Romero's Daikatana - Just Bad Games by Rerez
7. Final Fantasy XV
Back when Gears of War first stormed consoles and Wii Sports was revolutionizing motion controls, Final Fantasy Versus XIII began its superb decade-long odyssey. Then occurred three console generations, multiple platform shifts, and an eventual rebirth as Final Fantasy XV.
FINAL FANTASY XV - "Ride Together" Launch Trailer | PS4 by PlayStation
8. The Last Guardian
While Fumito Ueda envisioned this masterpiece as an exercise in minimalist storytelling, the game's journey proved anything but simple—a nine-year odyssey through technical roadblocks and hardware constraints that nearly derailed the PS3 project before its eventual salvation on PlayStation 4.
The Last Guardian | Launch Trailer | PS4 by PlayStation Europe
9. Dead Island 2
Four development studios, eleven chaotic years, and multiple abandoned versions paint the turbulent path of Dead Island 2 from its 2014 E3 reveal to its 2023 release. It was a fittingly messy journey for a game that ultimately chose Los Angeles's zombie-infested streets.
DEAD ISLAND 2 Walkthrough Gameplay Part 1 - INTRO (FULL GAME) by theRadBrad
10. Diablo III
Diablo III's ambitious experiments with online features serve as a stark lesson in respecting franchise foundations. The game had an eleven-year development marathon, marked by studio closure and multiple reboots. This real-money auction house needed to bow to core player expectations.
Diablo III: Gameplay Trailer by BlizzardEN
11. Prey (2006)
Technical setbacks and failed technologies threatened to doom another creation during its grueling eleven-year development, as multiple studios struggled to realize its vision. Yet through persistent iteration, the game pioneered fantastic portal and gravity mechanics, starring Tommy, a Cherokee mechanic.
Underrated Games: A Look at Prey (2006) by The Nth Review
12. L.A. Noire
The facial animation technology that defined L.A. Noire emerged from an ambitious seven-year technical odyssey, earning the game its historic Tribeca Film Festival spotlight. However, this achievement came at a steep human cost, as toxic crunch culture threatened its journey.
L.A. Noire 4K Trailer by Rockstar Games
13. Resident Evil 4
Before Devil May Cry slashed its way into gaming history, it began as one of Resident Evil 4's four abandoned prototypes during a transformative six-year development saga. This creative whirlwind of scrapped versions and shifting visions steered the series toward its action-focused rebirth.
Resident Evil 4 - 2nd Trailer | PS5 Games by PlayStation
14. Spore
After mastering city planning and virtual families with SimCity and The Sims, gaming pioneer Will Wright went on his most daring journey yet—Spore. The ambitious project evolved dramatically across eight years of development shifts, though its final form drew criticism for repetitive patterns.
Dominate Spore with the MOST AGGRESSIVE Species! by Chlorophil
15. Metroid Dread
After the last 2D Metroid in 2002, fans watched their hopes rise and fall as Dread became trapped in development purgatory for sixteen years. Their patience finally paid off in 2021, when the Switch delivered a nerve-wracking showdown.
16. Mother 3
In an era when most games took two to three years to complete, Mother 3's twelve-year development marathon stands as proof of perseverance. The project survived multiple platform transitions and near-fatal cancellations before emerging as a Game Boy Advance title in 2006.
The Beauty of Mother 3 by Charjie
17. Nioh
What started as Akira Kurosawa's unfinished script turned into gaming's most persistent passion project. Nioh spent thirteen years bouncing between creative visions and near-death experiences before finding its groove in a perfect marriage of Dark Souls mechanics and samurai cinema swagger.
18. Skull And Bones
In 2013, Ubisoft envisioned Skull and Bones as a mere expansion to Assassin's Creed Black Flag, but fate had grander plans. The project grew through multiple incarnations over eleven turbulent years, weathering management upheavals and creative reboots.
19. Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
Like a creature evolving to survive harsh conditions, this game adapted through nearly a decade of development storms, weathering engine changes and creative pivots amid intense crunch periods. We then got a dark premise of mind-controlled heroes as unwitting villains.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Review by IGN
20. Halo Infinite
Engine troubles with the in-house Slipspace engine, constant leadership changes, and a lack of clear creative direction marred development at 343 Industries. It reportedly underwent multiple soft reboots, with major story and gameplay elements scrapped or reworked late in production.
