In the industry, games often get announced far ahead of schedule and just sort of fade away until they're ready to be shown again. Although the silence can help ramp up hype on a specific title, it can also lead gamers to forget some of these titles were even announced in the first place (unless they were following the communities closely).
Within the last generation (which offered up some fantastic titles), many games were announced with no further follow up in terms of a new trailer, gameplay, or even a release window. Hopefully, most of these titles will end up seeing the light of day, but sadly some may very well never get released to the public.
10 Payday 3
In 2016, Starbreeze had acquired rights to the Payday IP and promptly announced that Payday 3 was entering development. Sadly, ever since then, the team has been relatively quiet on the progress of the game.
Although we have not heard much from the developers of the shooter series themselves, reports from the publishing side of Starbreeze Entertainment seem to point at a 2022-2023 release window. This news should give fans something to look forward to, even if it is still a few years out!
9 BioShock 4
It has been a very long time since fans enjoyed a new installment in the beloved BioShock series, and it appears 2K wants to patch up that void in gamers' lives. According to job listings, it seems they are planning on making a new title, potentially the most ambitious one yet.
It was only a couple of years ago when 2K announced they were opening a new, dedicated studio (Cloud Chamber) to work on the next installment in the BioShock universe. It was clear at the time that gamers would not see the title any time soon. It's perfectly understandable if many forgot this even happened!
8 Pikmin 4
The mystery around Pikmin 4 is fascinating, and it gets stranger with each passing year.
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In 2015, Shigeru Miyamoto said that Pikmin 4 was "very close to completion," which got fans excited for an upcoming release. However, things have been relatively quiet ever since then, with only a mention of it still being in development in 2017. If anything, the recent release of Pikmin 3 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch may be a promising step in the ramp-up for Pikmin 4 info? With luck, fans may hear more about the future of this quirky strategy series soon.
7 Skull & Bones
Ubisoft announced pirate-themed adventure Skull & Bones at E3 2017, with an initial release date of Fall 2018. It was then delayed to 2019, and then again until sometime after March 2020.
With March 2020 well in the past, it is safe to assume that Skull & Bones will not be releasing any time soon in 2021. Considering the game is being redone with a new direction, 2021 might be yet another quiet year for this project. 2017 is not long ago, respectively, but this is a game that has lost a lot of wind in its sails as a result of delays.
6 Deep Down
During the PlayStation 4 reveal event all the way back in 2013, Capcom announced a free-to-play Dark Souls-esque dungeon crawler called Deep Down, which was to be exclusive to the system. From there, the project seemingly vanished into obscurity.
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In 2019, Eurogamer published an interview they had conducted with producer Yoshinori Ono. He stated that the original development team behind the project is "no longer together," but also noted that the project has "not been completely given up on." Capcom renewed the trademark on June 19 for Deep Down, so there is still some potential light at the end of the tunnel for this title.
5 Wayward Tide
It was in 2014 when Stardew Valley publisher Chucklefish announced their next internally developed game, cooperative adventure (featuring more pirates) Wayward Tide.
Since then, the only sort of acknowledgment of Wayward Tide came from a former developer on the project, Molly Carroll. In a now five-year-old Reddit post, she states that development on the project was "halted" whenever the main programmer had left the company. It may be safe to assume this game is still in limbo at this point, considering how long it was since Chucklefish publicly talked about the title.
4 Witchfire
Another E3 2017 game that slipped into the void is The Astronauts' (of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter fame) next project, Witchfire.
Witchfire turned many heads when the team revealed the trailer in 2017, but the developers have been pretty much tight-lipped on this upcoming FPS ever since. When it comes to the release of Witchfire, the team simply said in a blog post in April of 2019: "It'll be done when it's done." With that said, the team has confirmed that the core combat loop is close to completion, which is excellent news.
3 Dead Island 2
It was seven years ago, at E3, when Deep Silver announced Dead Island 2 to the world. It was from there that things seemingly got out of hand.
The game has been in a very odd spot for many years, even switching developers four different times. With the original release set for Spring 2015, fans can't help but wonder how things went quite this awry. According to Deep Silver on Twitter, though, the title is still in the works. In April last year, fresh rumors started to circulate that the game may yet see release for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, so here's hoping!
2 System Shock 3
OtherSide Entertainment was officially developing System Shock 3 back in 2015. It wasn't until four years after this that a gameplay trailer was released showing off SHODAN's return.
However, since then, VideoGamesChronicle reported that the development of System Shock 3 was "critically behind" and that the team behind it was seemingly "no longer employed." Despite all of that, it seems that OtherSide Entertainment is still going forward with this futuristic adventure and is still developing it in some capacity with Tencent.
1 Bayonetta 3
When Nintendo unveiled Bayonetta 3 back at The 2017 Game Awards, it seemed that fans would be able to get their hands on it sooner rather than later.
That was not the case, as the game has gone relatively quiet ever since then (with nothing but a promise of more details to come by lead designer Hideki Kamiya). However, he has since addressed fans' concerns for the game, telling Famitsu in December last year,"development is progressing smoothly." Nevertheless, even with this in mind, the three-year silence undeniably pushed this highly anticipated (and highly stylish) brawler to the backs of fans' minds.