What's the longest delayed release?

[cyberfluxor]

I ran a search and DP and found no relative topic but many assumptions to what title holds the crown. Same goes with searching the internets, many games all over the place with long delays but no champion. Does anyone know what is the supreme ruler of delay? We're not including "to be" games but ones that have already see the light of day. Lets keep it to licensed games too because homebrews and unlicensed games can take years.

This sparked my interest because I'm reading in Edge Magazine from Oct. '93 it took NEC Avenue 4 years to release Rainbow Islands and ended up comming out on the PC Engine CD 4 years after it's announcement.

[youruglyclone]

guess someone has to say duke nukem forever?

[skaar]

Prey is up there, no?

[cyberfluxor]

We're not including "to be" games but ones that have already see the light of day.
:) I'm trying to make it difficult to everyone. LOL

[Porksta]

Prey is up there, no?

Prey IIRC, was cancelled, then brought back to life, as the original was called Pr3y.

[cyberfluxor]

I did a search on Pr3y and got a bunch of leet speak on people's reviews, nothing about it being the initial title. Do you have a reference to it or when they were announcing its development?

[theshizzle3000]

Yeah I would got with Duke Nukem if it were a game that has yet to be released I would say a new Earthbound game there are rumors out the wazoo about that one.

[k8track]

The one that immediately springs to mind is Daikatana, didn't that take 3 or 4 years?

Also, the Atari 7800 stuff.

[diskoboy]

What was the wait on Half-Life 2... wasn't it something like 6 years?

And Prey was cancelled and brought back. HL2 was in development for that entire 6 years. The theft helped delay it another several months.

[FantasiaWHT]

Are we distinguishing between "longest development time" and "longest span between original proposed release date and actual release date"?

MMO's in general tend to get pushed back frequently, I might look there

[Kroogah]

if it were a game that has yet to be released I would say a new Earthbound game there are rumors out the wazoo about that one.

Ah, good choice.

Development of Mother 3 began in 1994. In 1998 it was announced for the 64DD, downgraded to N64 and delayed for the first time (also in 1998), cancelled in 2000, announced as a Game Boy Advance game in 2003, and finally released in 2006.

[Beefy Hits]

Lunar I & II PSX deserve to be in this thread.

[7th lutz]

Nosferatu comes to mind. I've read in an issue of gameinformer that Nosferatu was in development for 4 years.

[Eggman]

It is definately Prey, which started development in 1995 and was released in 2006. And even though it has been stated here by a few people, Prey was NEVER cancelled, making it the longest developed game that I can think of.

[ProgrammingAce]

I think the title actually goes to Galeaon (or however it's spelled). The crappy pirate adventure on the Xbox.

Daikatana is up there, but by no means the top.

Half-Life 2 would probably be second. Team Fortress 2 may or may not have Duke Nukem Forever beat on overall delay, but i'd have to go check the dates.

[7th lutz]

The one that immediately springs to mind is Daikatana, didn't that take 3 or 4 years?

Also, the Atari 7800 stuff.

The 7800 was not pushed back. It ready to be released in 1984. It was not pushed back because Jack Tramiel didn't atari to be in the video game bussiness, but have atari being focussed in computers. Jack pulled the plog in the development of the 7800 and its games without any thought of releasing it to the public. From July 1984 to 1986, there was not work done on the 7800 or its games. The 7800 stuff was released only because Nintendo was making money of videogames and Jack saw dollar signs. It you don't work on the games, from a 1 or 2 year span, you can't say programmers were working on it along with atari didn't treat the 7800 release as a delay.

[mailman187666]

I remember waiting a whole year for Eternal Champions: CD when I was a kid. 3 different times, I called the store on the release day to have it be delayed for 4 months at a time. I played the shit out of that game until i unlocked everyone and till I saw every stage fatality.

[scaleworm]

Starcraft...the first person console one.... they have been workin on that for years now...

[cyberfluxor]

Starcraft...the first person console one.... they have been workin on that for years now...

Starcraft Ghost? That was cancled unless I somehow missed a resurection of the project.

[diskoboy]

Starcraft Ghost? That was cancled unless I somehow missed a resurection of the project.

Nope. Cancelled.

[AcePuppy]

Would have to be Duke Nukem Forever.. has been delayed for 10+ years now.

[Porksta]

As I read now, Prey was started in 1995 and put on "indefinite hold" in 1999. It was never actually cancelled. However, it is not the same game, it is basically the same story and title.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

Lunar I & II PSX deserve to be in this thread.

Definitely! Especially if you add in the time from when it was supposed to be a US Saturn release :)

[Spartacus]

I think the title actually goes to Galeaon (or however it's spelled). The crappy pirate adventure on the Xbox.


It's Galleon.
Here's a snippet from Gamespot...
"Galleon: Islands of Mystery was originally announced for the Sega Dreamcast way back in 1999. Developed by the original designers of the first Tomb Raider game, Galleon eventually moved to the PS2, then the GameCube, and finally settled as an Xbox-exclusive title during the long course of its development. More than five years after work first started on the game, Galleon is finally here."

Atlus is listed as the publisher of Galleon but I have no idea if they were writing checks to the developer for the full five years.

I was reading Dean Takahashi's "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked" about Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power. They were started in 2000 for the Gamecube when Nintendo owned Rare. When Microsoft bought Rare in 2002, they were converted for the Xbox and were finished in 2004. By that time, Microsoft decided that any 1st party games scheduled for the Xbox would be targeted for the 360. So both were reconverted again for the 360 and were released late in 2005. 5 yrs over three platforms. Rare cashed a lot of checks for those games!LOL

[tynstar]

StarCraft: Ghosts
Duke Nukem

Phantom Console (I know it is dead now...or never alive)

[jajaja]

You cant beat Duke 4 Ever. I first saw screenshots of it in like 98/99. Afaik this game have never had canceled status so its just been delayed and delayed and again, delayed hehe.

[bangtango]

Does Duke really count, though? I mean they keep on starting over from the ground up. It isn't like they are still working on the same game they started way back then. With all the times they continue scrapping previous work, presumably because someone thinks the visuals or gameplay is outdated, there have probably been half a dozen or more "games" in progress for all these years.

If they finish it, I am sure there will be references to the development time all through the game. Duke walks through a door and someone greets him by saying, "What took you so long? What has it been? 10 years!"

Ten bucks says the title Duke Nukem Forever is changed if it is ever released. You know it will get nothing but bad reviews from people saying the long wait wasn't worth it and given all this time, the game is a total letdown or underwhelming.

[scorch56]

"Released games"-wise would be Battlecruiser 3000.. hands down. That game took Mr. Smart 7 years to develop.. of course.. he SHOULD have kept it in development for another seven.. but that's beside the point.

I hear Advent Rising took years as well.. I actually enjoyed that game though.

Oh yeah.. and then there's Mr. Narcascistic Romero's release of Daikawhatever.

[Nes]

Can we just keep it to games that eventually came out. That way we have an exact time frame plus avoid every person thinking they're original by saying Duke Nukem Forever. :)

[badinsults]

What about Too Human? I remember seeing screenshots of that game back in 1998 for the Playstation.

[diskoboy]

I did a search on Pr3y and got a bunch of leet speak on people's reviews, nothing about it being the initial title. Do you have a reference to it or when they were announcing its development?
Actually, he may be right... I seem to remember it being called Pr3y at one time, as well..

[wallydawg]

How long did Heart of Darkness for Playstation take to come out?

[Leo_A]

Half-Life 2 wasn't even announced until 2003, I don't see how it could count as the longest delayed release.

[exit]

Eternal Darkness was in development for awhile, as well as Resident Evil 0. If we want to include rumored (but eventual) sequels, Sam and Max fits in there pretty well.

[FantasiaWHT]

Trying to think of games scheduled for one system but released a generation later...

Dinosaur Planet/Starfox Adventures?

[Steven]

It can't be #1 but it might be in the top 20... Nosferatu for SNES. It was in development since 92, MAYBE 91... (more likely '92 though) and finally came out in early 1995 IIRC

[bangtango]

Games that actually came out? Fight for Life or Battlesphere on the Atari Jaguar. I saw screenshots for FFL a couple years before it came out.

[Nick Goracke]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Magic Knight Rayearth. This was announced for release early on in the Saturn's life, and turned out to be the Saturn's last game. If I remember correctly, Working Designs' own Shining Wisdom (June '96) manual made mention of it "coming soon". Little did we know that "coming soon" would turn out to be December of '98.

[Snapple]

I don't think Mother 3 should count. The game that was made for N64 is a completely different game than the Mother 3 that came out for GBA. I think they reused a couple of ideas from the N64 game, but basically Mother 3 for GBA was built from the ground up.

The first thing that popped into my head in regards to taking the longest to complete was Kameo. I remember the screenshots for N64 way back when. Now it's skipped up two generations.

[j_factor]

What about Wild 9? I remember its long delays being spoken of frequently. When the game finally came out, the publisher distributed a voodoo doll of Dave Perry with a message about the game's delays. I don't know how long it was actually delayed, but that was pretty memorable.

[Adol]

Space fantasy Zone on PC-Engine was scheduled since 1989..and was on Famitsu schedule EVERY WEEK...it finally never came out when PC Engine died in 1999...but was in fact complete and appeared on Internet in 2002.

[Iron Draggon]

Tinhead was announced a long time before it finally came out... I don't think it was in development a long time though... it just didn't have a publisher...

[c2000]

-Heroes of Might and magic III (DC)
-Ring Age (DC)

-Super 301SQ (SS)

All unreleased but all were on release lists for over 3 years.

[robotriot]

Heart of Darkness was 5 years in development iirc.

What about Apano Sin (http://hol.abime.net/4653)?


Completed in 1993, but not released until 2000.