Sony

Untitled Cavia FPS (aka “Catacombs”) [Cancelled – PS3 / X360]

Catacombs is a cancelled FPS that was being developed by Cavia for Square-Enix in 2010. The game was never officially announced and the project was shelved in 2011, but in 2012 Siliconera leaked some screenshots and informations about it.

Catacombs was basically an interesting crossover between a RPG with random-generated dungeons and a team-based shooter. The player could upgrade the guns that he found in the ruins but also use magic. Four different characters were available, each one with its own story, which according to the narrative director Brandon Sheffield had an important role in the game:

Since we’re all inherently different and our mind is the only thing we can truly know, then our reality exists only inside of our brains. So each stage was about these people destroying their own fears and doubts and also their identity. They were supposed to be overcoming their sense of self, and how that related to their identity as an American, but also their otherness.”

EDGE in 2012 played an early build of the game that ran on a heavily modifed version of Mindjack engine.

For more informations check Siliconera article and EDGE special feature.

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Wildlife: Forest Survival [XBLA / PSN – Cancelled]

Wildlife: Forest Survival is a cancelled game developed by Electronic Arts which was supposed to be released in 2011 for XBLA/PSN.

The object of Wildlife was to survive in one of the eight different arenas available by exploiting the unique characteristics of the four selectable animals (a hawk, a rabbit, a gator, a fox).

Up to twelve players could also battle each other online. Sadly, it seems that EA decided to shelf the project for good.

For more informations about the game check Destructoid preview.

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Fallen Frontier [PC / XBLA / PSN – Cancelled]

Fallen Frontier is a 2d shooter developed by Moonshot Games which was supposed to be released for PC, XBLA and PSN. As we can see from the video and the screenshots below, it seems that the game was directly inspired by Bionic Commando, inasmuch as the main character could use his grappling hook to pull enemies and to swing across gaps. An offline and online co-op mode was also planned.

It looked quite interesting, but unfortunately Moonshot Games decided to cancel Fallen Frontier in 2013  because, as we can read on joystiq, they wanted to focus on mobile and social games instead:

Post-PAX we came to the grim realization that the market had shifted pretty substantially since we first started working on the game,” Isla said. “The console downloadable platforms had plateaued somewhat, and publishers were less excited about investing there. A game that had sold itself easily the first two times all of a sudden became a much harder sell the third time. By that time, the real interest and the accompanying dollars seemed to had moved on to mobile and social.”

For more informations check the co-optimus hands-on.

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Flux [Playstation / PC – Cancelled]

Flux was basically a very sophisticated 3D puzzle game involving a salesman in a suit as its main character, that was in development for the Playstation and PC. The player had to find his way through a maze of cubic rooms that could be flipped in 90 degree angles by pushing switches on the walls. The game was in development by Pulse Entertainment and was picked up by Microsoft but canned after awhile for unknown reasons..

Scan from PlayMag issue 8.

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The Scorpion King [PS2 – Prototype]

The Scorpion King is a prototype for a fighting game / beat ’em up that was created by Osiris Studios, based on the 2002 film with the same name (featuring Dwayne Johnson). It seems that the studio tried to pitch this demo to publishers that had the Scorpion King license (probably VU Games in North American and Universal Interactive in Europe), to get to develope it into a full game, but without luck.

In the end the publishers chose Point of View to work on their Scorpion King videogame, released in 2002 as The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian for the Playstation 2 and GameCube.

The Scorpion King demo by Osiris remained just a prototype and the studio closed sometime later (or did they evolved into an audio restoration agency?).

Thanks to Tork for the contribution!

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