Vaporware: Difference between revisions

* The Wii game based on Connie Talbot's ''Over The Rainbow'' album was scheduled to be released on the first quarter of 2009, but copyright issues with the songs to be used left the game in limbo. And guess who [[Ninjabread Man|developed]] it...

* The entirety of the ''Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII'' franchise appears to be suffering this at large:

** Then there is ''[[Final Fantasy Versus XIII]],'' announced alongside ''FF XIII'' at E3 2006. Actual discernible information on the game since then has been very sparse, and up until early 2010, trailers for it only contained CG and cutscene footage. The game has been languishing for so long that Noctis' ''costume'' hadn't even been finalised until some time in late 2009. Whilst development has definitely picked up since the release of ''FF XIII'', ''Versus XIII'' will likely not see release until 2012, ''six years'' after its initial announcement.

*** ''[[Final Fantasy Versus XIII]]'' ''[http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/07/final-fantasy-versus-xiii-update/ hasn't even gotten into the full-production phase as of July 2011!]'' Even [[Duke Nukem]] is getting tired waiting for this game!

** The American release of ''Tree Of Tranquility'' was pushed back numerous times, finally being released more than a year after the Japanese version and still shipped with a [[Game Breaking Bug]], which they took their sweet time fixing as well in a very quiet recall.

** Just how slow Natsume is was further emphasized when Marvelous let [[XSEED Games]], which it has partnered with on other games, handle localization of ''[[Rune Factory: Frontier]]''. The result? The game came out mere months after the Japanese release with ''zero'' delays.

* There was supposed to be a 2.5D ''[[Kirby]]'' game for the GameCube, but it never materialized on that system and has yet to show up on the Wii. The best guess to where it went? It became the Adventure mode of ''[[Super Smash Bros]]. Brawl'', which also got its share of delays (including the company President saying there was already a development team working on the game when it hadn't even been formed yet).

** An official trailer was released for a Wii Kirby game and is believed to be a the one originally planned for Gamecube. Nothing else has been said, aside from Nintendo stating on July 31st 09 it's still being worked on. Any mentions of it however have been removed from Nintendo's websites and fans had relegated it to vaporware for the most part.

* When the gamer completed ''[[Max Payne 2 The Fall of Max Payne]]'' at the end of the credits the encouraging message received was that "Max's journey through the night will continue." The third game in the series was announced by Jeffrey L. Lapin, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive (whom Remedy Entertainment sold the series to), in 2004. Thanks to drama in the background from former publisher 3D Realms, the third game went several years without any substantive news. The game was later announced for winter 2009, though that passed with no further news. Actual previews of the game surfaced, proving its existence but also showing a drastic change in the character and setting.

** ''[[Max Payne 3]]'' has since been entrusted to developer Rockstar Vancouver, was slated for a March 2012 release date, and had undergone enough of an advertising blitz that consumers could be forgiven for presuming that the game is actually going to come out.

** The game ''[[Manhunt]] 2'' almost suffered the same fate when it received an AO rating (a de-facto ban). It had to be [[Bowdlerise|Bowdlerised]] to receive an M-Rating, although the death scenes were still shocking. Ironically, the first ''[[Manhunt]]'' was just as gory as the AO version of the second game, but it only received an M rating.

*** The controversy it had already stirred up might have been a factor. (The BBFC had refused to give it classification, essentially banning it in the UK).

* Three games based on ''[[Star Wars]] [[Return of the Jedi]]'' were announced by Parker Bros. for the [[Atari 2600]], but they only released one, ''Death Star Battle'', before abandoning video games due to [[The Great Video Game Crash of 1983]]. A prototype of "Game I" (also known as ''Ewok Adventure'') was discovered, but the second game, whose concept art suggests being based on the Battle of Sarlacc's Pit, appears to have never been programmed. Other unreleased titles announced by Parker Bros. included ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]: Journey to Rivendell'', ''McDonald's'', ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]'', and a [[James Bond]] game based on the [[Traintop Battle]] from ''[[Octopussy]]''; prototypes of the first two have emerged.

* ''California Raisins: The Grape Escape'' instantly springs to mind, developed late in the NES' lifespan. That's right, a game based on a marketing ploy to eat more fruit. Despite being finished and reviewed by many magazines, it utterly vanished into the night without being released on the NES. It actually had some cool concepts, like moonwalking... [[Good Bad Bugs|which resulted from a game bug]]. More can be found [http://progressiveboink.com/archive/grapeescape.html here] and [http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/basedoncrap10.htm here].

* ''[[Lugaru]] 2'' was like this for awhile, mainly due to the core programmer being in college. It was announced in 2005, with some initial work. However, the one-man programmer went to college and ''Lugaru 2'' just sat there collecting dust. Although he did create some physics tests and such (one even involved a moving ball that actually sounds like it's moving), the core of the game wasn't worked on a lot. After he graduated (near the end of '08), he changed the name to ''Overgrowth'' and his company, [http://www.wolfire.com/ Wolfire Games] has been "leaking" out alphas Since the beginning of November '08. ''Overgrowth'' was originally planned to be released in the first quarter of '09, then the second quarter, now it's done when it's done.

* There was a sequel planned for the Macintosh [[First-Person Shooter]] ''Sensory Overload'' (which came out about the same time as ''[[Doom]]''), but development apparently never commenced.

** ''[[Halo]]'' was originally supposed to come out exclusively on the Macintosh operating system, as Bungie had been producing games exclusively for Mac for years before (the ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' franchise anyone?), making the buyout by Microsoft that much more painful. The fact that the Mac port took longer than the Windows port was just salt in the wound.

* One running joke among players of the serial [[MMORPG]] ''[[A Tale In The Desert]]'' comes from the lead developer's insistence that 'This Telling (iteration) will be shorter'. Of course, that was back in the second Telling, which ran for a year and a half, and led to the third Telling, which ran for over two years. At this stage, there are no predictions for how long the fourth Telling will run, though a [[Tech Tree]] quickly pushed forth light years ahead of its predecessors is a good sign...

* ''[[GURPS|GURPS Online]]''. It's still advertised in the text for ''GURPS 4th Edition.''

** For that matter, many of the online tools for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition (Especially the online game table app) have still not been released, despite advertising that they would be bundled with 4th edition on release in 2008.

* The English version of ''Digimon RPG'' ran into some delays after the site that would be hosting it disappeared. It finally came out in 2010 under the title of ''Digimon Battle''.

* ''Sadness'' for the Wii was announced so long ago that Nintendo's machine was still called the Revolution at that point. During "development" of the game, Nibris came under heavy criticism for not producing any evidence of any development, no images, demos, gameplay trailers, etc. All Nibris has to show for it is [http://www.youtube.com/user/NlBRlS some concept artwork] and [http://www.nibris.net/news.html broken promises]. In the end, [http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=139668 Nibris stopped develping games].

* The last ''[[Commander Keen]]'' game ends with an ad for "Commander Keen in The Universe is Toast!", planned for Christmas 1992. It never happened -- their publisher at the time, Apogee, offered more guaranteed money for [[Wolfenstein 3D|a game featuring John Carmack's new 3-D engine]] rather than a sidescroller. What makes this vaporware instead of a mere tease is that it's never really been officially abandoned, and a couple of the creators still insist they'd like to make the sequel.

* Another classic that promised a never-to-appear sequel was [[Infocom]]'s take on ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (video game)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', potentially called ''Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe''. Delays, including the development of ''Bureaucracy'' (also written by Douglas Adams), meant the game was delayed, with Infocom eventually going bankrupt before the sequel could be made. All that is left to show for it are some of Douglas Adams' notes and a very, ''very'' small amount of code with nothing more than a few locations on the surface of Magrathea, only two of which have any description whatsoever. All of the code, what little there is, is playable online [http://waxy.org/random/software/milliways/milliways_release15.html here]. A complete history (as complete as anyone can make it, anyway) can be found [http://waxy.org/2008/04/milliways_infocoms_unreleased_sequel_to_hitchhikers_guide_to_the_galax/ here].

* Only ''[[Puzzle Quest]]'' players on the [[Xbox 360]] and [[PlayStation 3]] got the expansion pack ''Revenge Of The Plague Lord.'' Versions were announced for the Wii and PC, but never emerged, nor were any cancellations of same announced. Though apparently, many of the elements from Plague Lords were integrated into the iPhone version of PQ. The [[PlayStation 3]] version came out so much later than the others that it was bundled with the expansion.

* Freeware space exploration simulator ''[http://www.anywherebb.com/ Noctis IV]'' saw a good (and justified, given how an entire galaxy was squeezed in 700 kilobytes of data) popularity in the early 2000s; the author announced ''Noctis V'', a version with native Windows support, a renewed engine and many more new features and adjustments, around that time. For a while, it completely fell off the radar, and contributions to the NIV starmap weren't even included in the game anymore. Then, support to NIV resumed and its source code was released, but as of July 2009 (when the author once again assured that he hasn't given up on the project), NV ''still'' hasn't come out, while the older iteration shows more and more the signs of its age (like complete lack of sound and very cumbersome interface).

* ''[[Castlevania]]: Resurrection'' was announced as a [[Sega Dreamcast]] launch title. Late in development, it was canceled for reasons that remain mysterious.

** There was also a ''Castlevania'' title in development for the Sega 32X that also got canned when it was obvious that the system was not selling; some of its spritework was recycled for ''[[Symphony of the Night]]'' and ''[[Portrait of Ruin]]''.

* The computer game adaptation of ''[[Champions]]'', the pencil-and-paper superhero RPG, provides an epic example of this trope. Cover-featured in [http://vu.morrissey-solo.com/moz/perez/info/cgw4-92.htm a 1992 issue of ''Computer Gaming World''], it promised to be an ambitious and groundbreaking game that would be faithful to both the RPG and the superhero genre. It never happened. [http://www.gamespot.com/features/pcgraveyard_champions/index.html According to Steve Peterson], designer of the original ''Champions'', the game was about 50% complete when it was canceled. Problems included the game's extremely ambitious design for its day along with the divorce of the game's chief developers, a husband-and-wife team. ''Champions'' would finally become a computer game in 2009 as ''[[Champions Online]]'', but apart from the underlying intellectual property, it has no relation to the vaporware classic.

* It is a very common trope in independent game makers to plan out plots or characters and sometimes go as far as produce screenshots or artwork, only for the place updates of the game are posted on to go from frequent to quiet and for the game to eventually (and quietly) be dropped (a common red flag is when the latter updates over-emphasize how close it is to completion or something along the lines of "we're not dead, we're still workin' on it!", yet no real progress is shown otherwise). It is common because the core idea of the game was usually done out of a quick jolt of inspiration or impulse, and, among other reasons, die either because the creator's interest in the game waned, it turned out to be too much work (and if the engine in question isn't freeware or fully freeware, costly) than they expected, conflicting thoughts between the group (especially if the original creator was more dis-organized, inexperienced or [[Small Name, Big Ego|holier than thou]] than the rest of the dev team they hired), personal reasons (school, work, personal life, we've all heard it before), or legal reasons (especially if said work was a fanfic embodied in a game, was a painfully obvious cut-and-paste of another source, or was meant as a fan-remake of another game). It has come to a point now that if there was someone out there that plotted out ideas for a game and was looking for a team, most would more than likely say "screenshots/demo/(privately-transferred-)prototype or it isn't serious." It is especially common in community boards dedicated to freeware game-making programs such as RPG Maker, Game Maker, DS Maker, Ren'py, Blade, Novelty, some ROM hack projects and tools, and so on.

* After ''[[Conduit 2]]'' flopped, High Voltage Software's Wii games ''The Grinder'' and ''Animales de la Muerte'' are becoming this. While both were close to being finished when last seen in 2010, High Voltage has not been able to find a publisher willing to release them, and now that the Wii is about to be replaced, it'll likely remain that way.

* Ever heard of the (very NSFW) ''[[Emo Game]]''? There was a ''Super Emo Game III''' in development for a long time. Scheduled for a 2006 release, it... was never released. Very, ''very'' occasional updates were released for years. For a while, it was claimed the game was going to be on a CD you could order online. And then, to close the cycle, superemogame.com was taken down and all mention of ''Super Emo Game III'' was removed from emogame.com, as were the links to the blogs discussing it.

* ''[[Shadowgate]] Rising'' was fairly close to complete as another Nintendo 64 installment in the franchise, but the GameCube's imminant release coupled with the middling reception ''Shadowgate 64'' had garnered both combined to seal its fate.

* The graphic adventure ''Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix'', a sequel to ''[[Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis]]'', was never produced except for a comic book tie-in. One reason for its cancellation was the worry that a [[No Swastikas]] version could not be produced for Germany, as the plot involved Nazis using the Philosopher's Stone to resurrect Hitler.

* ''RPC Genjin'', an advertised but never-released RPG spinoff of the ''[[Bonk]]''/''PC Genjin'' series.

* ''Bio Force Ape'', a fast-moving NES [[Platform Game]] by Seta starring a genetically altered chimpanzee using [[Wrestler in All of Us|pro-wrestling moves]], was previewed in 1991 as an upcoming release, but canceled within a year. Reports in 2005 that a prototype of the game had been discovered turned out to be a hoax, but five years later an actual prototype cartridge of the game was discovered.

* The ''Lufia'' series has a few of these:

** The Sega Genesis version of ''Lufia and the Fortress of Doom'', which was advertised with a delay, but never released.

** ''Lufia: Beginning of a Legend'' for the [[Game Boy]] Color, originally in development alongside ''Ruins Chaser''.

* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom 4]]'' was first announced in 2008, but has repeatedly hit delays due to id Software being bought out by Zenimax, as well as development resources being channeled into ''[[Rage (video game)|Rage]]'', and is not expected to be released until 2013.

* ''Agent'' by Rockstar. Revealed at e3 2006 as a Playstation 3 exclusive title, and has been MIA since. As of 2012, nothing has been shown of the title other than the logo.

* "Stellar Dawn", a [[Sci Fi]] MMORPG by Jagex, has been in development since 2008 or 2010, depending on whether or not you include the never finished predecessor Mechscape. Its development has currently been paused indefinitely.

== Video Game Systems & Peripherals ==

* The Phantom game console has earned numerous vaporware awards and frequent comments on its auspicious name (as if the entire thing was a practical joke on a massive scale). First announced in 2002 (when its download-only sales model seemed [[It Will Never Catch On|downright insane]]), it was repeatedly delayed and pushed back until being put on infinite hold in 2006. The design company has since been accused of fraud by the SEC, changed names, and decided to focus on releasing the console's couch-keyboard-and-mouse accessory for other platforms. Unlike the Phantom, this one actually ''was'' released, and the reviews for it were quite favorable. The only recurring complaint would be the terrible mouse that had to come along with it. That said, the company is still in dire straits regarding its financial and legal troubles. The other problem with the Phantom was that the [http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MTI5NDEsRmVicnVhcnkgLDIwMDUsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q= CEO was a well-known con artist who specialized in vaporware.]

* The 64DD, a disk drive for the Nintendo64. By the time it was released in 1999, everyone had long since lost interest, and it never saw the light of day outside Japan.

* Many of the designs invented by Active Enterprises were doomed to fail from the start, but the most ambitious of these was their planned portable gaming console, the '''Action Gamemaster''': Conceived as a massive, foot-and-a-half wide beast with a 3.2 inch screen, this system would not only be compatible with proprietary game discs (including "killer app" Cheetahmen 3), but it would also house an expansion port that would accommodate cartridges for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]], the [[Super Nintendo]] and the [[Sega Genesis]], and it could also be used as a portable television set, with a projected price point of '''''500 dollars'''''. It seems as though Active were truly ahead of their time with their idea for a multisystem portable - many of the Gamemaster's features now seem to have manifested in Sony's [[Play Station Portable]] instead.

* The [[wikipedia:Panasonic M2|Panasonic M2]] console was to have been the 64-bit successor to the [[Three DO Interactive Multiplayer|3DO Interactive Multiplayer]], but was canceled very close to its announced 1997 release. [[Konami]] did manage to release a few arcade games on its hardware. ''D2'', originally announced as an M2 game, ultimately saw release on the [[Sega Dreamcast]].

* The Control-Vision VHS-based console for which the [[Full Motion Video]] games ''[[Night Trap]]'' and ''[[Sewer Shark]]'' were originally developed.