Canceled Video Games That Deserve a Comeback

For every fantastic or even disappointing game that manges to release on various platforms, there's just as many titles that sadly never see the light of day and suffer the fate of cancellation.

Sometimes games are shut down early on in their development at the conceptual stage, while others are canceled with playable builds or being practically finished and ready to ship to storefronts.

Over the years, numerous games with great potential and high anticipation from fans have been canceled for numerous reasons, such as publishers striving to save costs, internal disputes, or development studios deciding to use resources on other, arguably more promising ventures.

Whatever the reason for their cancellation may be, there are several canceled games that deserve a comeback, either in their original envisioned concepts or revived in a new expanded form to please gamers and developers alike.

10 Dante's Purgatorio

The Canceled Sequel to Dante's Inferno

Visceral Games is well remembered for creating the Dead Space franchise, but one of their other famous titles was 2010's Dante's Inferno, a third-person hack-and-slash reimagining of the Divine Comedy which saw a crusader named Dante fight through the nine circles of hell to rescue the soul of his beloved Beatrice.

Dante's Inferno infamously ended on a cliffhanger with Dante venturing to Mount Purgatory and teasing the return of Lucifer only for the words "To Be Continued" to appear on-screen.

Fans never saw this storyline resolved, but Visceral did attempt to make a sequel in 2011 called Dante's Purgatorio, which would have seen the crusader fight up through the mountain, combating invading demons and angels alike to reach the Gates of Heaven, only for the game and a proposed third entry to be canceled early on in development

While Visceral Games is sadly no more, it would be great to see EA remaster or remake Dante's Inferno one day and potentially release this ambitious sequel to at least appease fans who have waited over 15 years to see Dante's story be properly concluded.

9 Halo: Codename Haggar

Halo's Attempt at a LEGO-like Adaptation

Some of the most popular games of the 21st century are TT Games' numerous LEGO titles adapting several popular film series and comic book universes in LEGO form. In the early 2010s, 343 Industries and n-Space attempted to replicate that success with Halo: Codename Haggar.

Haggar was the codename for a canceled project to make a Halo game based on the Mega Bloks Halo toyline similar to TT's LEGO games, complete with buildable items, vehicles, and structures, co-op, third-person combat, and collectibles.

Multiple playable prototype builds of the game were made featuring Master Chief and Spartan IVs comedically fighting Covenant on a Halo ring, but Haggar was ultimately canceled for unknown reasons by Microsoft.

A LEGO-like Halo game still has immense potential today, especially as a way for younger gamers to get into the nearly 25-year-old Halo franchise while the mainline games retain their more mature design.

8 Wonder Woman

Monolith Productions' Canceled Masterpiece

Monolith Productions was a fan-favorite developer for many players, namely due to their celebrated F.E.A.R. and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor series, but one of their most promising games was also the last one they ever worked on, with that being Wonder Woman.

Originally announced in 2021, Monolith's Wonder Woman would have been the first video game dedicated solely to DC Comic's leading Amazon and be an original story not based on any particular film, television, or comic iteration of the Princess of Themyscira,

Wonder Woman would have built upon Shadow of Mordor's innovative Nemesis System with the game being a single-player, open world title seeing Diana fight to unite the Amazons and the world of men in modern day against the sorceress Circe and an army of mythological creatures.

Sadly, WW and Monolith were both shut down in 2025 following internal issues with Warner Bros. and James Gunn, but this concept of an open-world mythological Wonder Woman game still has a ton of potential, and it'd be great to see it revisited one day either in the DCU or in an alternate universe such as Absolute Wonder Woman.

7 Star Wars: Imperial Commando

One of Star Wars' Most Wanted Follow-Ups

There are a multitude of exciting Star Wars games that were canceled over the years, from criminal underworld-focused Star Wars 1313 to Star Wars Battlefront III. But of all the canceled titles, the one that would arguably be the best to produce in modern Star Wars canon has got to be Star Wars: Imperial Commando.

One of the best Star Wars games to release in 2005 was the squad-centric FPS Star Wars: Republic Commando, which saw the Clone Commando Delta Squad complete highly dangerous missions throughout the Clone Wars up until they were forced to abandon their squadmate Sev during the Battle of Kashyyk.

Shortly after RC's release, LucasArts began working on a follow-up called Star Wars: Imperial Commando, which would have seen Delta react to Order 66 and the transition of the Republic into the Galactic Empire, with Sev being revealed to have survived and found a rebel cell.

Unfortunately, IC was shut down early in its development due to RC's low sales, but IC can work perfectly well today, with Clones being more popular than ever before. It could perfectly expand upon story threads introduced in Star Wars: The Bad Batch with the show featuring Scorch as a high-ranking Imperial Commando training Stormtroopers.

6 Pokémon Legends: Ho-Oh and Lugia

Exploring Johto's Past

Following the widespread critical and financial success of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, but before development properly began on Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Game Freak originally worked on not one but two successors to Arceus which would have taken players back to the early years of the Johto region.

According to credible Pokémon news leaker Centro Leaks, Pokémon Legends: Ho-Oh and Pokémon Legends: Lugia were going to be the original follow-up titles to Arceus and would have shown how the first Pokémon Trainers came to be and the revival of three Pokémon in Johto's past, likely Entei, Raikou, and Suicune.

These games were originally planned on launching in 2024 to coincide with Pokémon Gold and Silver's 25th anniversary, but these Johto-centric titles were ultimately scrapped for unknown reasons and replaced with the Kalos-centric Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

While Z-A is a great game on its own, the concept of exploring not only how Pokémon Trainers came to be and an old Johto similar to the Hisui region is just too interesting for Game Freak to not make a reality sometime in the future, hopefully for Gold and Silver's 30th anniversary.

5 Dead Space 4

Isaac Clarke's Ultimate Fate

As mentioned before, Dead Space was a beloved survival horror franchise, but it was sadly one that ended on a rather frustrating cliffhanger with the Dead Space 3 Awakened DLC concluding with Isaac Clarke and John Carver returning to Earth only to find it being consumed by three Brethren Moons.

While Dead Space 3 was in production, Visceral already began working on Dead Space 4, which would have seen Ellie Langford become the protagonist and gameplay shift to a more open world design compared to the series' traditional linear design.

Unfortunately, Visceral was shifted to work on other projects such as Battlefield Hardline and the canceled Star Wars Project Ragtag game before being ultimately shut down in 2017, leaving Clarke's fate and the overall Dead Space story unfinished.

Many former DS creators and Visceral developers have since pitched other Dead Space 4 concepts to EA with little success, and with EA's gaming future currently in limbo, it's unknown what future DS will have. Fans deserve to see Clarke's story be properly concluded one day, even if it's not with EA.

4 Assassin's Creed: Project Scarlet

Assassins in America's Reconstruction Era

In 2025, following the launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows, it was revealed that Ubisoft canceled an upcoming Assassin's Creed title internally called Project Scarlet that would have had players return to the United States during the country's Reconstruction era.

According to anonymous sources from Ubisoft, Project Scarlet was in development by Ubisoft Quebec to be the next mainline AC game after Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe and would follow a former slave recruited by the Brotherhood who would eventually return to the Deep South post-Civil War and fight Templars and KKK members alike.

Project Scarlet, however, was officially canceled in 2024 due to Ubisoft being concerned with blacklash surrounding Assassin's Creed Shadows' Yasuke and concern that the game would face criticism and potential financial issues in the U.S.'s increasingly tense political climate.

There's a plethora of reasons why Ubisoft should greenlight Project Scarlet once more, but a few would be to simply see Connor Kenway's legacy in a game as he practically rebuilt the American Brotherhood single-handily and for fans to finally get an AC game set around the Civil War, which has long been a requested setting for the series.

3 Silent Hills

The Most Disappointing Horror Game Cancellation

In the mid 2010s, the survival horror franchise Silent Hill was arguably at its most dire state after multiple underwhelming new game releases and mixed-received remasters of classic titles, but the series was poised for a grand return with Hideo Kojima's Silent Hills.

Originally revealed through the hit 2014 playable teaser game P.T., Silent Hills was in development since 2012 with Kojima and critically acclaimed film director Guillermo del Toro serving as directors and Norman Reedus portraying the lead protagonist.

The game was in development with Kojima's Fox Engine, used in games such as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Survive, but it was quickly canceled in 2015 due to internal conflicts between Kojima and Konami.

While Kojima, del Toro, and Reedus went on to produce the Death Stranding series, and Konami went on to revive Silent Hill with the Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill f, it would be great to see the two parties reconcile and release Silent Hills as it could have easily been one of the greatest horror games ever made.

2 Scalebound

Xbox's Promising Modern System Seller

Xbox used to be well-known for producing genre-defining console exclusive titles such as Halo, Gears of War, and Viva Piñata, but while it's essentially abandoned developing standout exclusive games today, it did attempt to release a title which could have completely changed the trajectory of the Xbox One with Scalebound.

Originally announced at E3 2014, Scalebound's development can be traced all the way back to 2006 with the founding of PlatinumGames, but the game wouldn't start proper development with Microsoft and PlatinumGames until 2013, with it being slated for a 2016 launch before being delayed to 2017 as an Xbox One exclusive.

A third-person, action RPG with open world elements, Scalebound was envisioned as a highly ambitious title for both PlatinumGames and Microsoft as it would have starred Drew, a modern man dropped into the fantasy world of Draconis, where he would bond with the dragon Thuban and together fight gigantic monsters similar to gameplay found in Monster Hunter, in single player or four-player co-op.

Sadly, Scalebound was canceled in 2017 as it "didn't do all the things that we needed to do as a developer," according to PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba. While Microsoft still retains the rights to Scalebound, it would be amazing to see the two companies come back to finish the game, especially with Xbox now being less focused on making exclusive games.

1 Prince of Perisa: The Sands of Time Remake

Ubisoft's Latest Misstep

Ubisoft these days seems to be in a constant downward spiral with reports of hundreds of layoffs, strikes, and numerous game delays and cancellations, but one of their most upsetting recent game cancellations has got to be the shuttering of its Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake.

Originally announced in 2020 and scheduled to launch in 2021 by Ubisoft Mumbai and Pune, the Sands of Time remake was delayed several times and even saw development shift to being overseen by Ubisoft Montreal in 2022 before being confirmed for a 2026 release window in 2024.

However, on January 30th, the Sands of Time remake development team officially announced the cancellation of the remake due to the developers not being able to, "... reach the level of quality [fans] deserve, and continuing would have required more time and investment than we could responsibly commit."

Despite this statement, reports from insider j0nathan and anonymous Ubisoft developers claim that the Sands of Time remake was 99% complete and was canceled due to internal quality standards issues. But if this turns out to be true, Ubisoft should strive to complete the game, shadow drop it, and let fans new and old decide if they like the game or not.