Deep Down (Capcom)
Deep Down was announced way back in February 2013, and looked like Capcom’s take on the Dark Souls formula. It was a dungeon crawling game with four player online co-op, set in New York in the year 2094. Players use magical artifacts to be transported to other worlds, and each artifact was going to correspond to a different emotion including envy, lust and wrath.
Since its reveal, all we’ve seen of Deep Down has been the reveal trailer and a small bit of gameplay. At the Tokyo Game Show in 2013, Producer Yoshinori Ono announced that the game would be switching to a free-to-play title and a public beta would coincide with the Japanese release of the PS4. The beta has been delayed multiple times and never actually released, and we haven’t seen the game at E3 or any other show since. Deep Down hasn’t been officially cancelled, but after going another E3 without seeing or hearing anything about it, doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. Hopefully we’ll see the game reemerge at some point, with a new vision.
Battlecry (Bethesda)
Bethesda opened up a new developer called Battlecry Studios back in 2012, whose first game was a class-based multiplayer brawler of the same name as their studio. After the game’s announcement in 2014, we saw a bit of gameplay at that year’s E3, but things have been fairly quiet ever since.
A beta for Battlecry was supposed to hit last year, but was delayed by Bethesda, who said they were evaluating how to improve the game to the publisher’s standards. Another E3 has passed without seeing mention of Battlecry, or even its beta, so it remains to be seen what the ultimate fate of the multiplayer title will be. Especially with Bethesda juggling so many projects at the moment, like Elder Scrolls Legends, Quake Champions, and Dishonored 2.
Agent (Rockstar)
Agent is a bit of a pipedream at this point, but one that we all hope comes to fruition just by its premise alone. Just hearing about the possibility of Rockstar, the developer behind Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead, making a spy game is incredibly exciting. Agent was officially announced seven years ago, during Sony’s E3 press conference in 2009. It was a Cold War-era espionage game set in the late 1970s, and developed by Rockstar North.
The only update we’ve received since then was in 2011, when Strauss Zelnick the CEO of Take-Two Interactive announced the game was still in development. It’s been five years since that announcement and we haven’t seen hide nor hair of the game. Rockstar tends to have fairly lengthy development cycles, but seven years is too long, even for them. Agent may end up just falling by the wayside.
Overkill’s The Walking Dead
Overkill is the developer best known for the Payday series, so fans of the Walking Dead were excited when it was announced the talented developer would be making a new zombie game with the publishing help of Starbreeze Studios. Overkill’s The Walking Dead is a co-op FPS with some RPG elements, that would explore new characters and storylines from within the series’ universe.
The game was originally announced in 2014 and planned for a 2016 release, although it suffered a delay into 2017 early this year. An accompanying VR experience was also announced in 2015, but outside of some concept trailers, we haven’t really seen a lot of gameplay from either game. The Walking Dead is still in development (according to Starbreeze and Overkill), but seeing some more footage from the game sooner or later might help inspire some confidence.
Beyond Good & Evil 2 (Ubisoft)
Beyond Good & Evil 2 has been one of the biggest rumors and hopes for a few E3s now, as fans keep hoping the game will make an appearance. The original game is a cult classic released by Ubisoft, and created by Michel Ancel also known for creating the Rayman series. Eight years ago, Ubisoft announced the existence of a sequel with a teaser trailer featuring one of the original’s main characters, Pey’j.
Over those eight years, Ubisoft has assured fans time and again that the game is still in development, but not at a stage that can be talked about. Even Ancel and Ubisoft Montpelier confirmed this January that the game is still being made, but fans can only wait for so long without seeing even one tiny clip or hearing one detail. Everyone’s wondering how much longer we’ll have to wait for Beyond Good & Evil 2, or if we’ll see it all.
Tekken X Street Fighter (Bandai Namco)
Six years ago at San Diego Comic Con, Bandai Namco and Capcom announced an incredible crossover between Tekken and Street Fighter that would not only yield one, but two different games. Capcom would produce one game in the style of Street Fighter, while Bandai Namco would make the other with the stylings of Tekken. In 2012, Capcom delivered by releasing Street Fighter x Tekken on Xbox 360, PS3, Vita, PC, and even iOS.
We’ve been waiting all this time since then for the Tekken x Street Fighter, but so far we haven’t gotten anything. Bandai Namco has said a few times that the game is well along in development, even nearly done. But then in April this year, Tekken Producer Katsuhiro Harada announced the game would be delayed so it could release “at the right time.” With Tekken 7 on the horizon, you have to wonder what kind of priority Tekken x Street Fighter could receive for quite a while. It’d certainly be a pity to only see one half of this impressive partnership come to fruition.
Half-Life 2: Episode 3/ Half Life 3 (Valve)
This is the big one, the one that everyone keeps holding hope out for year after year for some reason. Half-Life 2 helped set a standard for FPS games in terms of both gameplay and storytelling, and Valve planned on finishing the story of Gordon Freeman with three additional “episodes.” Half-Life 2: Episode One released in June 2006, with Episode Two following in October 2007, even though it was supposed to release shortly after the first. The delay suggested that fans may have to wait a while longer for Episode Three, but now an entire decade has passed and we’ve yet to hear anything substantial about it.
In that time Valve has released the phenomenal Left 4 Dead and Portal games, and all we’ve seen of another Half-Life has been a few pieces of concept art. Valve is a company that wants to always keep moving forward, and the managing director Gabe Newell has said in multiple interviews that Valve only revisits franchises if there’s enough people on the development team that want to do so. For now, we’ll keep waiting for the slightest announcement of another entry in the Half-Life series, but at some point we may just have to accept the fact that Gordon Freeman isn’t coming back.
What do you think about these seven games that missed E3? Which ones do you think will still see the light of day? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
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