An archive with screens, info and videos for cancelled, beta and unseen videogames for the Microsoft consoles. Check our archive to understand what it means to preserve lost games.
Sonic Heroes is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Sonic Team USA and released in 2003 for the GameCube, Playstation 2 and Xbox. Kieranmay linked us to many beta videos from the game, as you can see below! Many cutscenes were still unfinished and the songs were changed for the final version.
Also, as we can read at Sonic Retro, various Sonic Heroes betas were leaked online:
Fahrenheit (aka Indigo Prophecy in the US), is an adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and released for the Playstation 2, Xbox and PC in September 2005. The game evolved a lot during its development and from the early screens we notice various beta differences. The character models, some scenes and locations were changed in the final version. If you have finished the game and notice more specific differences in the gallery below, please let us know!
Thanks to Megalol and Anonymous for the contribution! More info on the game can be found at Omikron Game Blog
More beta differences were noticed by John Doom:
image 4: Tyler isn’t wearing a cap
image 5: armchairs aren’t zebrine in the retail
image 6: Lukas meets Markus in the square’s center in the retail.
image 7: Lukas and the local are different
image 9: the victim is different
image11: Markus seems… darker? o.o He has a slightly different look.
image13: the local insists with a palette of red, green and yellow rather than in the retial
image19: Tyler wears a slightly different cap in the retail.
image23: the policeman wears a different uniform
image24: the tap is out of order but there’s no sign in the retail.
image26: the bathroom has a different paint and there is also a glass in the retail
image27: it is the concept of Jeffrey.
image28: Lukas
image29: Probably Kate or Carla, but she is different from both
image32: he’s probably an early model of the victim
image35: she should be Kate because i remember that she dressed that blue dress
image36: it seems that Bogart is missing (or he could be hidden behind a bin and he’s impossible to see from this angle)
Splinter Cell: Conviction is a stealth / action game developed by Ubisoft Montreal, released in April, 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PC. The project was originally announced on May, 2007 when Ubisoft released a trailer for the game. It depicted a more rugged-looking Sam with long hair and a fully-grown beard. He had the ability to blend in with the environment, interact with tables and chairs and engage in hand-to-hand combat with enemies.
The game was due for release in November, 2007. However, it missed its initial launch date and on May, 2008 Xbox World 360 magazine reported that Splinter Cell: Conviction was “officially on hold” and that the game had been taken “back to the drawing board.” While Ubisoft never confirmed this, they announced that the game had been pushed back to the 2009-10 fiscal year.
The game resurfaced at E3 2009 with a completely new visual style and a more casual-looking Sam. The developers confirmed that the “new” Conviction had been in development since early 2008, commenting that “the gameplay has evolved a lot” and “the visual direction is simply much better.” [Info from Wikipedia]
We can say that the original Splinter Cell Conviction was cancelled, as the final game and gameplay look very different from what was shown in 2007.
Thanks to Userdante for the contribution! Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!
Mercs Inc is a spin-off title based on the Mercenaries franchise, planned for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. Pandemic Studios worked on a prototype of the game until its closure in November 2009. After a video of this prototype leaked, EA announced that the game would be developed at EA LA.
As we can read on Wikipedia:
The game was first rumored to be in development by Pandemic Studios as either Project X or Y which were rumored to be based on the Mercenaries franchise. Footage of the game was first leaked onto the internet on November 24, 2009, the footage was a multiplayer trailer of the game. The game was then officially announced by Electronic Arts less than a day later though without a proper platform or release date. The announcement of the game came less than a week after the closure of Pandemic Studios by Electronic Arts as it had been development there under the name, Project Y, the game is currently being developed by remaining Pandemic Studio staff members located at EA Los Angeles.
In november 2010 another Mercenaries video leaked from Kotaku, but we are not sure if it’s from the same project as Mercs Inc, as they call it Mercenaries 3: No Limits.
Final Fantasy XIII is an RPG developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2009 / 2010. First appearing at E3 2006, FF13 runs on the Crystal Tools engine, a seventh generation multiplatform game engine built by Square Enix for its games.
Toriyama, director of FFXIII, commented a bit on the differences between the PS2 and PS3 versions of the game. FFXIII was originally in development for the PS2, but underwent a platform change following May 2005.
There is apparently very little shared between the two versions. The graphical elements that were prepared for the PS2 couldn’t be used, explained Toriyama. “The areas that we kept are the Fabula Nova Crystallis world, the pieces of the mythology related to FFXIII, and the character details. On the other hand, the battle and gameplay systems were restarted from scratch when production moved to the PS3.”
The development staff also underwent some changes. “During development for the PS2, the staff was centered on the Final Fantasy X-2 team. However, in an effort to work with the new PS3 hardware, many new staff members are now taking part.”
As reported by Siliconera and Kotaku, according to art director Isamu Kamikokuryou, many additional areas that were functioning in an unreleased build, from Team Nora’s secret base, to Lightning’s home and even a zoo, were cut from the game owing to concerns about the game’s length and volume. Kamikokuryou additionally remarked that the volume of content cut was, in itself, enough to make another game. [Info from Wikipedia]
Zero7 noticed some beta differences in the early screens released (preserved in the gallery below):
Mock up HUD, completely changed in the final
Fang at one hour in? You cannot meet her so soon in the final
Snow had a slightly different coat
The black-haired girl has a different outfit
If you can notice more differences in the early screens and videos, please let us know!
Thanks to Robert Seddon, Zero7 and Anonymous for the contributions!
Runebrid is an unreleased SRPG that was in development in 2003 / 2004 by Max Entertainment for the original XBOX. It would have been published by Takuyo, but only a single piece of artwork was ever shown for the project before its cancellation. Max Entertainment was a new company by Kenji Orimo, former Climax developer and co-director of the original Shining Force. Runebrid might have had gameplay similar to SF (and Orimo’s Super Famicom game FEDA: The Emblem of Justice), but sadly we’ll never know for sure.
Campfire: Become Your Nightmare is a cancelled “reverse survival horror” that was in development in 2003 by Daydream Software, for the original Xbox and Playstation 2. The project was going to be an open ended action game, in which the player would had take the role of a serial killer, to massacre tourists and youngsters during their holydays in the woods. As we can read in the official press release:
What if you were the hunter instead of the hunted? What if your sole purpose in life was to cause misery, death, and pain to anyone and anything you encountered? Now you have your chance. So begins Daydream Software’s brutal “reverse survival horror” game, Campfire. Based on contemporary slasher flicks, Campfire allows players to choose from four different serial killers (Vincent Voucher, Mac Douglas, Louis Winterstorm, and Mannie the Clown) so that they may use them to wreck havoc on the unsuspecting populace of an out of the way campground.
Campfire vanished without any official announcement, but it’s possible that Daydream never found a publisher interested in the project.
The Bard’s Tale is an action adventure developed by InXile Entertainment, and released in 2004 for the Playstation 2, Xbox and PC. DCodes7 found a way to activate the debug menu in the PS2 port. Most of the debug functions are disabled and the only working functions are the level/area select and level load option. Thanks to the debug menu it’s possible to reach three unused yet complete areas that can be played. Some names of removed (?) test maps were also found:
Wild Justice is a cancelled FPS set in an “horror western” scenario, that was in development in 2002 / 2003 by Primythive Studio for the Playstation 2 and Xbox. A playable prototype was created to pitch it to various publishers, but in the end Wild Justice had to be cancelled. If it would have been finished, the game could have been similar to Darkwatch, an horror wild west FPS developed by High Moon Studios and published in 2005.
Wild Justice was one of 4 prototypes that were created by Primythive, but it seems that the studio never found a publisher interested in their projects and sadly they had to close down without finishing any game. Only few screenshots and a teaser are saved in the gallery below, to preserve its existence.
This cell-shaded shooter is a prototype that should have been in development in 2004/2005 by 2015 Inc (?) for PC and Xbox. After working on Men of Valor, it seems that the studio tried to create this new shooter with a less realistic graphic style, but the project was later cancelled for unknown reasons.
