5 Soul-Crushing Game Cancellations Like the Prince of Persia Remake

Ubisoft’s surprising wave of game cancellations included The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, scrapping one of the studios’ most anticipated projects ahead of its rumored 2026 release. This incredibly disappointing outcome is, unfortunately, far from the first time a beloved game has met an untimely end before its launch. In fact, several infamous examples still weigh heavily on player hearts, existing in history as wasted potential that was never realized.

Many factors contribute to a game getting cancelled, including a lack of quality or over-investment of resources that failed to make something substantial. Some series lose out on a sequel, while others have promising visions that get cut short. The worst examples to accept are games that show enough interesting elements to build up hype and an audience, only to be cut due to circumstances outside developer control.

5. PT (Silent Hills)

Silent Hills was arguably the most exciting horror game ever to be in production, crafted by the creative minds of legendary director Hideo Kojima and film savant Guillermo Del Toro. Starring Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead fame, this game was set to return to a legendary survival horror franchise with truly innovative ideas for the genre. The mystery behind this game only added to fan hype, but severe creative disputes led to its cancellation in 2015.

This shutdown still hurts, mainly due to how a playable preview was already made through the existence of PT, the demo for Silent Hills. Exclusive to the PlayStation 4, PT was removed from the console’s Store, making it lost media today. However, multiple gameplay videos and preserved copies that weren’t erased from specific consoles still showcase the title in all its terrifying glory. The psychological fear that just the sample provided was instantly gripping, likely to create one of the best horror games since Silent Hill 2. Alas, it was not to be.

4. StarCraft: Ghosts

Some cancelled games are easier to accept without footage, but StarCraft: Ghosts had a completely leaked prototype for players to lament never having. Long before the era of live service titles getting their servers scrapped, this game was intended to be a spin-off of the popular real-time strategy Starcraft. At one point, Starcraft was likely the most popular game in the world, so news of a title that would go deeper into the RTS’ lore excited fans everywhere.

StarCraft: Ghosts was going to be a stealth-action 3rd person shooter, with mechanics similar to Gears of War that put players on the ground. Announced as early as 2002, this title went into limbo for years, being put on hold permanently in 2006. Around eight years later in 2014, it was officially cancelled, extinguishing player hopes that had long lingered for almost a decade. Unlike today’s success stories of Hollow Knight: Silksong surviving long waits, StarCraft: Ghosts couldn’t endure shifting console generations and long-lasting development issues.

3. Scalebound

Game trailers like those for Scalebound can skyrocket player expectations, causing anticipation to grow to unbelievable levels. First revealed in 2014, Scalebound promised action like never before, allowing you to have a dragon companion that grew stronger with you. Similar in scope to The Last Guardian that would come out two years later, Scalebound was developed by Platinum Games, the creators of genre defining titles like Bayonetta.

The ambitious nature of Scalebound grew too large for either Platinum Games or Microsoft, their partners in its exclusivity. Creative visions clashed with the inclusion of too many complex game mechanics, such as four player co-op and an emphasis on online play. With the transition from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One console, the inexperience of Platinum at the time with newer engines broke the camel’s back. Too many complex features to complete Scalebound led to its collapse, causing it to be cancelled officially in 2017.

2. Perfect Dark

One of the most heartbreaking modern examples of a game cancellation is Perfect Dark, the reboot of the landmark series of the same name. The original Perfect Dark was crucial in shaping the FPS genre, alongside other games like Halo: Combat Evolved at the time. This recreation of an old classic was long desired by fans, who got their wish with an announcement in 2020 at that year’s Game Awards. There, it was shown that Xbox would be helming a new Perfect Dark project, with first-party dev team The Initiative putting all their efforts into it.

For a time, there was nothing regarding this game, making many fans fear for the worst. However, a long overdue gameplay trailer in 2024 showed off sleek first-person stealth action, with parkour mechanics and freedom in how players approached combat. This seemed to be everything players wanted, revitalizing excitement after a long drought. Unfortunately, long periods of creative clashes and drastic changes in personnel across the project would eventually sink a ship that already had a lot of holes.

Perfect Dark changed hands many times, with other development groups like Crystal Dynamics and Certain Affinity getting involved over the years. The game was still in pre-production only a couple of years before launch, causing progress to move at a snail’s pace. When combined with the massive Microsoft layoffs of 2025, Perfect Dark moved into the abyss, cancelled for the time being, much to the frustration of fans who had already waited for far too long.

1. Star Wars 1313

Star Wars 1313 is the ultimate example of a devastating game cancellation, mainly because it had no reason to disappear in the first place. This game was shown off as a dark, gritty underworld action-adventure title set in the underbelly of the Star Wars universe, long before Star Wars Outlaws was ever an idea. Similar to 2002’s Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, this game would focus on Boba Fett during his younger years trying to claim his father Jango’s mantle as the deadliest bounty hunter in the galaxy.

Gameplay presented from LucasArts was met with boundless enthusiasm at E3 2012, with legendary Star Wars creator George Lucas having a personal hand in the game’s story to generate even more positivity. Despite Star Wars 1313 seemingly having every tool it needed to succeed, one major change derailed it — the selling of Star Wars to the Walt Disney Company. Disney notoriously shut down all of Star Wars‘ in-house studios, including LucasArts, effectively terminating all their projects at once.

Huge internal layoffs were also met with Disney’s exclusivity deal with Electronic Arts, making EA the only studio who could create officially licensed Star Wars games. As such, Star Wars 1313 could never reach the finish line, still representing one of the most upsetting game cancellations due to how it died from changes far outside developer control.

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