Game development is getting more and more costly, in terms of both time and money, which makes a lot of sense, seeing as video games (especially AAA ones) have become more ambitious in nature. This, however, is also admittedly quite frustrating for gamers all around the world because companies tend to announce new projects years in advance and then go on complete radio silence for extensive periods of time, without releasing any new information, images or trailers.
Making video games takes time, and we always prefer companies not to rush or overwork developers, but they also should stop announcing video games so eagerly, sometimes before they even have any gameplay to show. As a result of this alarmingly common practice, there are now a lot of announced video games that we know very little about and are seemingly taking too much time to come out.
Marvel’s Blade (Announced in 2023)
During The Game Awards 2023, Bethesda and Arkane Lyon revealed a brand-new game based on the iconic vampire hunter from Marvel Comics: Blade. The teaser trailer is very brief and doesn’t show much, but we can’t deny that it’s oozing with style since Blade is a flat-out cool character, and his dark stories are perfect for a fun and unique action game.
Sadly, as promising as Marvel’s Blade looks, it has been almost a year since the original announcement and Bethesda has yet to disclose any more information on the project. Naturally, fans are wondering when it’s going to come out. To make things even worse, there are rumors that we may not be able to play it until 2027. The timing couldn’t be more unfortunate, as Marvel Studios is reportedly having a lot of trouble with the production of the upcoming MCU Blade film starring Mahershala Ali. But who knows, maybe we’ll receive a second trailer during this year’s Game Awards?
TMNT: The Last Ronin (Announced in 2023)
2024 saw the release of various Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video games, like Mutants Unleashed or Wrath of the Mutants. So it may be easy to forget that there’s an AAA title based on the legendary The Last Ronin comic book that it’s currently in development. And you may have completely forgotten about it because we still know almost nothing about it, aside from the fact that it’s heavily inspired by the new God of War games.
Simply titled TMNT: The Last Ronin (The Game), Black Forest Games, who was behind the recent Destroy All Humans! remaster, is currently working on this intriguing project. I understand why they are carefully taking their time, as this game has the potential to be a Ghost of Tsushima-type adventure but with the Ninja Turtles as playable characters instead. Nevertheless, it’s kind of odd that it has been more than a year, and we still have not seen any real in-game footage of this project.
Iron Man (Announced in 2022)
It’s undeniable that Superheroes have exploded in popularity in the past decade, mainly due to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Said universe made Tony Stark / Iron Man a lot more famous in the eyes of mainstream audiences, so it’s no surprise that Disney would want to take advantage of the character’s newfound popularity. That’s why they partnered with Electronic Arts in order to announce a brand-new third-person, action-adventure Iron Man game in 2022.
Motive Studio, the developers behind the recent Dead Space remake, are currently working on this project, which sounds great because they have proven that they’re a talented team and Iron Man is a fun and beloved superhero who never got the best treatment when it comes to video games, especially when we compare him to Spider-Man or Batman. However, it has already been more than 2 years since the initial announcement, and we still know nothing about it. Not to mention that Motive Studio is also working on a new Battlefield game, so there are always concerns that they might be biting more than they can chew. This isn’t even the only Marvel project that Electronic Arts is currently working on, seeing as it also announced an open-world Black Panther game in 2023, and we know very little about that one, too.
Kingdom Hearts 4 (Announced in 2022)
After much anticipation, Square Enix and Disney announced the long-awaited fourth numbered entry in the beloved Kingdom Hearts series back in April 2022, in celebration of the franchise’s 20th anniversary. This trailer was incredibly exciting, as it showed Sora in the mysterious city of Quadratum, meeting Strelitzia (a character from Kingdom Hearts: Union χ) and fighting a gigantic Heartless with a seemingly refreshing new take on the series’ signature combat system. Needless to say, Kingdom Hearts fans are extremely excited about this new game, myself included.
And that’s it. After more than 2 years, that’s pretty much all we know about Kingdom Hearts 4, aside from some minor tidbits that director Tetsuya Nomura revealed in a few interviews. Fans of this franchise are anything if not patient, so they theorized that Square Enix was waiting to release Final Fantasy VII Rebirth before shifting its focus to the marketing of Kingdom Hearts 4. Nevertheless, it has been 10 months since Rebirth’s release, and the company hasn’t shown any new trailers or images of Sora’s next adventure. To make things even worse, Square also revealed a new AR mobile game titled Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link, the same day as Kingdom Hearts 4 and while it still hasn’t come out after 2 years, at least we know a lot more about it, even though the company delayed its 2024 release very recently.
Marvel’s Wolverine (Announced in 2021)
I’m sure you already recognized a pattern on this list: Most of these upcoming video games are projects based on popular Marvel superheroes. One of the most anticipated ones is undoubtedly Insomniac’s Wolverine game, which Sony originally announced back in 2021 during one of its many PlayStation Showcase livestreams. At the time, we knew that it was going to take a long while for Marvel’s Wolverine to come out since the studio was quite busy working on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as well.
But, Spider-Man 2 came out more than a year ago, and Insomniac and Sony have yet to reveal any more information on their upcoming Wolverine game. Unlike most other entries on this list, however, we may know exactly why both companies have gone on complete radio silence regarding this title. In late 2023, a group of hackers stole private files from Insomniac and shared multiple in-development images and videos of Marvel’s Wolverine online. This incident appears to have affected the development of multiple projects at Insomniac; although the studio hasn’t said anything about it, it may have resulted in a delay for Wolverine, too.
PROJECT 007 (Announced in 2020)
Many people consider Rare’s Nintendo 64 adaptation of the James Bond film GoldenEye one of the best and most revolutionary first-person shooters ever made. Agent 007 has starred in multiple solid video games ever since, but none of them have reached the great heights of GoldenEye 64. However, there is hope: IO Interactive is currently developing a new James Bond game with the working title of PROJECT 007.
IO Interactive is the studio behind the modern Hitman games, so these developers definitely know a lot about stealth and espionage. However, the studio hasn’t revealed much information about PROJECT 007 to the public since it was announced back in 2020, and the game’s official website barely has any images in it. While it will have an original story, we don’t even know which actor’s likeness it’s going to use for James Bond. It’s possible that IO Interactive is waiting for the official announcement of the next James Bond actor in order to reveal more information about this mysterious game.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake (Announced in 2020)
There’s no denying that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of the most creative and influential video games that Ubisoft has ever put out, and the announcement of a full-scale remake for modern systems was one of the most exciting projects that the company has revealed in the past few years… until we took a look at its lackluster trailer. Reading the text that says “Available January 21, 2021” on that video’s description is as funny as it is tragic because Ubisoft went into full-on damage control mode after fans reacted negatively to it.
While we have seen a fair share of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake images and videos, the fact that Ubisoft keeps delaying its release date, coupled with statements from the developers claiming that they used the feedback to change the game as much as possible, means that we can’t be entirely sure of how the finished version (that will supposedly release in 2026) is going to look. It’s a good thing that Ubisoft is taking its time so it can be sure it won’t disappoint fans of this legendary game (and at least we know the studio completely cancelled this remake). Still, this entire story is proof that maybe the company shouldn’t announce some of its AAA video games so quickly.
Hollow Knight: Silksong (Announced in 2019)
Unlike all the other titles on this list, Hollow Knight: Silksong is an indie game made by a smaller studio, Team Cherry. Back in 2019, it announced this sequel to the beloved 2017 indie darling Hollow Knight, which was originally going to be DLC for said game until the developers decided to turn it into a full-blown new installment. That’s good and all, but after revealing some images and trailers with promising gameplay in them, Hollow Knight: Silksong has completely disappeared from the face of the planet.
Team Cherry is a smaller team, and so far, it hasn’t reported any major setbacks; it’s just that the development of Silksong is taking a lot of time to complete. Hollow Knight fans have been incredibly understandable and patient about this, but they are also begging for the studio to reveal more information. Every single Nintendo Direct, PlayStation Showcase, Gamescom or any similar gaming news event is an emotional rollercoaster for these fans, who are eagerly waiting for even the smallest of updates.
During Bethesda’s E3 2018 conference, Todd Howard went on stage and announced The Elder Scrolls VI. Seven years after the release of the incredible The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, we finally had confirmation that the next entry in this legendary RPG series was in development. But little did we know that this was the first and last time we were going to see this game in the span of 6 years.
Bethesda is famous for creating expansive and ambitious open worlds, having revealed another similar project, Starfield, at the very same conference. The studio most likely focused on Starfield for all these years. Now that it’s finally released, the developers can continue working on The Elder Scrolls VI. Regardless of what Bethesda is doing now, Todd Howard should have never revealed this game with so much fanfare in a clear effort to appease Elder Scrolls fans who have been asking for a Skyrim sequel for so long. Announcing such an anticipated video game, only to not show any more images, videos or information for over 6 years is downright absurd.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 (Announced in 2008, Re-Announced in 2017)
One of the most infamous unreleased video games in the history of the industry is Beyond Good & Evil 2. Ubisoft originally announced it back in 2008, and its reveal trailer showed that it was seemingly going to be a standard sequel with the same main characters from the first game: Jade and Pey’j. But this was sadly never meant to be, as Beyond Good and Evil 2 went through a lot of development issues and changes before disappearing from the face of the planet for almost a decade.
But Ubisoft reignited the fan’s hopes when it re-revealed Beyond Good and Evil 2 during its E3 2017 conference. This was a new version of the game: A prequel with a completely new cast of colorful characters and a bigger focus on open-world gameplay. It may not have been what most fans were hoping for, but it still looked entertaining and promising. Unfortunately, as you can expect from Ubisoft, it stopped revealing information on this game ever since. Some fans are afraid that the company canceled Beyond Good and Evil 2 – with some theorizing that it was retooled into Star Wars Outlaws – but it’s still in development within Ubisoft. It certainly hasn’t been easy, especially after the game’s original director, Emile Morel, passed away in 2023, and the company assigned Fawzi Mesmar as the new director as recently as October 2024.
