Summary
Video game development can be a long and arduous process that comes with hurdle after hurdle. There are many places a game could go, but the last thing devs and players alike want to avoid landing in is development hell.
Even if a game doesn’t get completely scrapped in this state, it’s hard to get out unscathed. Thankfully, there are some titles that not only survive but cement themselves as stellar works. Dead Island 2 technical director Dan Evans-Lawes has evensaid that such a troubled process served to improvetheir game in the end. Take a look at some of the best games that prove development hell isn’t necessarily the end.
Although many long-time fans still question howFinal Fantasy 15stacks up compared to its predecessors, it is still one of the most popular JRPGs out there. With its QOL updates and added content, you may not even notice that it was initially supposed to be a spin-off title called Final Fantasy Versus 13.
The platform it would be on also shifted, with new tech being taken into account during its decade-long development. The main staff working on the project would also see multiple changes that would trickle down to how themes were tackled. Considering how much of the game feels like a road trip with friends sprinkled with higher stakes, it almost feels too true to life that it took so long to make any plans a reality.
In the grand scheme of things, four years doesn’t feel out of place for a major game release. That said, the criminally underrated Sleeping Dogs saw a lot of problems during this period. It even got completely canceled by its original publisher, Activision Blizzard before being picked up later by Square Enix.
Its many delays also led to huge staff cuts, largely because its original publishers didn’t feel it could compete with Rockstar’s golden childrenGrand Theft AutoandRed Dead Redemption. Despite that, the game found new life away from the True Crime series and still remains one of thebest mainstream video game representations of the Asian-American identity.
L.A. Noirewas a marvel at the time of its release because of graphics that highlighted impressive cast performances and made the game feel more immersive. It’s still a decent title to jump back into these days, albeit with a few tweaks to remove its 30 FPS lock on PC.
Unfortunately, it saw designers, level artists, and animators alike overworked while being underpaid for years. Under a suffocating regime, missed deadlines and high turnover were inevitable. This painful seven-year engagement would turn out to be the nail in the coffin for Team Bondi, with the game being their first and last.
Cyberpunk 2077is pretty notorious for being one of the biggest disasters in recent gaming memory. It has since redeemed itself after many updates that bring it closer to the vision that CD Projekt Red had for it all along, but not without its hiccups.
After some preliminary work in 2012, it would be stuck without major development until 2016 when Adam Badowski took charge with a complete overhaul. The development team then had to face hardware concerns that introduced tons of bugs and performance issues. Sprinkle in a huge scope and content that would ultimately get cut, and you have yourself a great game that barely scraped through the crunch.
Diablo 3is one of the most successful releases in the games industry. Years after its release, it remains among the top sellers and is only surpassed byMinecraft,Terraria, andPUBG: Battlegrounds.
YouTube creator Indigo Gaming has a two-hourdeep dive into its problematic historybecause there is just that much that went awry.
Long before its announcement, the game was already in development. It took over a decade for it to finally hit shelves, with a cheeky little reference made by its developers by way ofa secret level called ‘Development Hell’.
WithMother 3getting re-released in 2024 for theNintendo Switch, 18 years after its Japan-only launch for the Gameboy Advance, it’s interesting to find out that it temporarily got canned for a couple of years before its initial launch.
Mother 3 spent so long in the dreaded inferno of development time that it saw four whole console jumps. Considering how iconic its predecessor,Earthbound, had become, it had huge shoes to fill. Luckily, it was an immediate bestseller.
Resident Evil 4is one of the most celebrated games in the series, often lauded as the catalyst for the genre of third-person action-horror gaming as we know it today. Although a five-year development timeline is par for the course for Capcom releases, this game saw multiple iterations while sticking to that schedule.
Without even counting its many regional changes and re-releases early on, RE 4 saw plenty of changes in direction, graphics, and gameplay that truly affected its development team all the way to the end.
Alan Wakeis a gem that only got a major follow-up sequel over a decade later because of IP challenges with Microsoft and Remedy. The developer’s long-standing love for Alan even lived on in other hits like Control referencing his story and existing in the same universe.
Five years may be far from the longest time to finish a game (Duke Nukem Forevertakes the cake with 15 years in development), but dev hell can also come in the form of publisher meddling and multiple gameplay revisions. Having to shift from its original sandbox form, Alan Wake would eventually become a critical success and earn a deserved cult following.
Full development forPersona 5, without counting Royal, took almost six years. That said, initial work was already being done as early as 2008. Almost a decade went into this game, mostly due to delays and localization.
A huge wrench in development also came with the release of the PlayStation 4. The game was made for exclusive release on PlayStation 3 but had to delay its release further to accommodate the new hardware and maximize its launch. It ended up being worth the wait asPersona 5 Royalhas since become thebest mainline release for the Persona series.
If there’s any game that can undoubtedly be the success story of development hell, it’sHalf-Life 2. One of the most loved games of all time was forged in the flames of hacked builds, leaks, release delays, engine improvement, physics, and an evergrowing scope that challenged Valve’s teams.
After five years of development, the game was finally released and went on to become a pioneer in storytelling and game engine design. Just imagine how many games you’ve played would suffer had Half-Life 2 succumbed to the horrors of development hell.
