With the announcement of Cyberpunk 2077 and Dying Light 2's (indefinite) delay, it looks like 2020 could become the year of "delayed gratification" when it comes to gaming. One of the sad realities of excellent-looking games is that they can give way to development problems that can eventually amount to delays.
Not only is it frustrating, but it leads to low morale and the nagging suspicions that this game may not be the impressive outing that it is set up to be. Overall, constant delays are not good for PR. Nevertheless, they are a reality of the gaming world. Today, we are going to touch on the most delayed games in history, and those that eventually hit shelves.
Let's take a walk through memory lane, and hope that Cyberpunk 2077 and Dying Light 2 don't wind up on this list in the future.
10 Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth - Six Years
The works of Lovecraft seem to have wooed game developers for decades, even as far back as the 90s. In 1999, Headfirst productions began work on a Call of Cthulu game. The game was originally set to be a co-op experience that allowed for four players. Many of the original ideas for the game were picked up by Andrew Brazier—team member of Headfirst Productions—as he asked what fans wanted in chatrooms. Unfortunately, as time went on, the studio had to ditch this plan for a one-player experience. Eventually, in 2005 the game came out to lukewarm reviews.
9 Alan Wake - Six Years
Alan Wake is getting a lot of shine these days, and it is rightly due. This game took survival horror and presented a fresh and unique take on it. While you know the critical acclaim that Alan Wake received, did you know that this one was delayed in the mid-2000s? Remedy Entertainment, known for Max Payne, wanted to drop another unique gaming story. Alan Wake was initially meant to be released in 2005, but it did not make its way onto the Xbox 360 until 2010. Now, if we can only get a sequel.
8 Resident Evil 4 - Six Years
This title went through a lot of different variations before it finally hit shelves in 2005. For example, one of the original stories for this game is what we now know as Devil May Cry.
Eventually, Shinji Mikami took over and developed the final concept into the over-the-shoulder adventure we have come to know and love today. It’s hard to believe the first iteration of this game was initially announced in 1999, over 20 years ago.
7 L.A. Noire - Seven Years
It’s not hard to see why this game took quite a while to be released by Team Bondi (with Rockstar Games as the publisher). With a budget range of tens of millions, L.A. Noire was one of the most expensive games to be developed back in the early 2010s. The graphics and detailed storylines are responsible for that hefty price-tag. The meticulous voice acting and ambitious motion-capture techniques helped this one go from a 2004 release to 2011.
6 Spore - Eight Years
When you are trying to create a simulator that allows people to play “life creators,” we can see how development can go on for eight years. Spore was the creation of Will Wright, creator of SimCity. He wanted to develop a game that allowed people to control the development of a species from a microscopic organism to an advanced civilization. This project was beyond ambitious, hence why work on this game started in 2000 and ended in 2008.
5 The Last Guardian - Nine Years
Now, we are getting to games that have seen players grow from middle and high schoolers to college-aged adults. One of the most famous is The Last Guardian. The team responsible for Shadow of the Colossus wanted to bring another fantastical and epic story to the forefront in The Last Guardian.
It was slated to be a Playstation 3 exclusive, but development woes pushed it from 2007 to 2016 after it was re-announced at E3 2015. Finally, after almost ten years, Team Ico saw the establishment of their next title (and it was pretty good too).
4 Team Fortress 2 - Nine Years
With humble beginnings as a Quake mod, Team Fortress was an exhilarating shooter that pit players against one another based on their affiliation to nine classes. It was the Fortnite and PUBG of its time. Well, the response to this Valve title was favorable as the studio announced plans to publish another title. Unfortunately, a new style for the game, along with a severely delayed product cycle, saw this one pulled back by almost ten years. Team Fortress 2 made it to shelves in 2007. Nevertheless, for those still playing the title, the game was worth the wait.
3 Too Human - Nine Years
This title not only saw a nine-year delay (from 1999 to eventually 2008), but it also ended up being published on a system that wasn’t developed at the time of its announcement that belonged to another company entirely. Too Human was set to be an epic story of Norse mythology blended with sci-fi. It was slated to hit the PlayStation but was then locked in development limbo until its release on the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t have a happy ending. Delays cost them their original audience, while lawsuits and lousy press tanked the game’s legacy.
2 Diablo III - Eleven Years
The development of this title started in 2001, even though it wasn’t announced until 2008. For many other games on this list, the cause for the delay wasn't just poor planning, critical staff departures, ambitious tech requirements, or a variety of other reasons.
The main purpose of this one was a basic fear of failure. The story goes that Josh Mosqueira, the game's director, was afraid Diablo III would not live up to the high bar that the second game set. Some years, errors, and an expansion pack later, Diablo III finally became a worthy successor.
1 Duke Nukem Forever - Fifteen Years
Yes, you read that right: 15 years. You knew this one had to be number one on this list. It should be common knowledge that if a game’s development has outlived the staff (the 3D Realms team), the console it was originally slated for, and almost a generation of gamers, then it may be time to change up the strategy. Unfortunately, 2K Games and Gearbox software trudged on to create something almost unrecognizable when compared to Duke Nukem 3D. The jokes were outdated, the graphics lackluster, and the story was weak. This title surely wasn’t worth the wait.