Coffee Talk: What (Tentatively) Canceled Titles Make You Sad?

Welcome to Geekadelphia’s weekly discussion column, Cofffee Talk, where we (sometimes) talk about the finer topics concerning video games, technology and all the other things you can’t talk about with your slightly-less-geeky friends. Have questions or suggestions? Send an email to geekadelphia@gmail.com or tweet with us. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to keep this week’s discussion alive.

Alright, so maybe this isn’t one of the finer issues concerning the medium, but we don’t always have to get deep. Do we? While perusing the good ole RSS feed, I discovered that Ubisoft’s I Am Alive (which has an intriguing trailer) is being totally reconstructed within their Shanghai studio using the Splinter Cell engine that powers the yet-to-be-released Splinter Cell: Conviction. Announced in 2008, Ubisoft’s ‘survival game’ will not see the light of 2010, but has a tentative release of 2011.

This was only a scare of a potentially powerful concept going kaput, but hundreds of other titles have bit the dust in a similar fashion. Any mention of the words Duke and Nukem in the same sentence will suck the joy out of a conversation. Duke Nukem Forevers‘ severely fragmented development cycle and publisher hand-offs has led to the unfortunate dismantling of its development team within 3D Realms and a dash of corporate downsizing for good measure. It has since been popularly referred to as Duke Nukem Forever In Development. Some canceled titles that depress me and room for discussion after the break.

As for one that gets me in a particularly bluesy mood? Blizzard’s Starcraft: Ghost, a stealth focused third person shooter (akin to the Metal Gear Solid series) first announced for the Gamecube in 2002, was put on indefinite hold by Blizzard in 2006 after, you guessed it, another shoddy development cycle littered with team switches and console cancellations.

Fans have yearned for this game so deeply that a novel titled Starcraft Ghost: Nova was released in 2006 despite Starcraft: Ghost’s indefinite cancellation. In fact, a sequel to said novel has been announced, which leads us fans to believe that the Ghost storyline may be addressed within Blizzard’s upcoming Starcaft II. While it’s not exactly what we asked for, we should probably take what’s being handed to us and stop whining.

Speaking of whining, what canned — ahem — postponed titles have put your panties in a bunch over the past few years? Perhaps that direct Chrono Trigger sequel that may never be has got you (me) miffed? Sound off in the comments so we can “QQ” together.