Top 10 Broken E3 Promises of All Time

#10: “Project H.A.M.M.E.R” (2006)

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During the inception of the Wii, Nintendo had a difficult task on its hands in terms of convincing mainstream gamers that the console wasn’t limited to family friendly titles like Wii Sports. Enter Project HAMMER; a supposedly brutal hack and slash that would appeal to western audiences with its hard-core gameplay. As a result it was heavily advertised, and in theory could have been a good foundation for later launch titles, but alas conflict from within and several revisions dragged the game out until it had all but lost its identity. 2009 signalled the final nailed hammered into its coffin as it was ultimately cancelled.

#9: “BioShock Vita” (2011)

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We all remember the original Bioshock right? How it blended together a haunting story with unique and entertaining gameplay mechanics in an unforgettable setting? As it happens, director Ken Levine actually had a different future in mind for the franchise. At the tail end of a rant about the PS Move, Levine teased that the Vita would be the home of a new Bioshock project. Sounds intriguing, right? Turns out, Levine’s plan was a turn-based game set before the fall of Rapture. Well, any dreams of one-upping a Big Daddy on the go were dashed when developer 2K and Sony failed to make an agreement, something he still regrets to this day.

#8: “The Division” (2013)

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When Tom Clancy’s The Division was announced at E3 2013, people couldn’t wait to explore the open-world of this innovative first-person shooter together with friends. What was finally released was not quite what was promised. Despite being delayed until 2016, the demo presented at E3 looked years ahead of the final product. There’s nothing wrong with the game per se – in fact, it’s Ubisoft’s biggest success in terms of first-day sales – but what gamers got at the end of a long three-years since the announcement was a far cry from the graphically impressive and highly realistic demo.

#7: “Phantom Dust” (2014)

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Breakups hurt all parties, gamers included. While a remastered version of the original has recently been released for free, it was the promise of a stylish looking reboot that had players chomping at the bit. The action strategy series made a name for itself as a classic back in 2004. As you can imagine, seeing a reveal trailer a decade later at E3 gave old time fans and those interested in the genre something to look forward to. However, with Microsoft ending its relationship with game developers Darkside, the reboot was lost in development limbo. At least they saw the sense to offer fans some comfort by releasing the old one for free.

#6: “PS3 Original Specs” (2005)

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In spite of the so-called console wars, Sony managed to give fans a pretty nifty gift in the form of the PS3, whose legacy of games aren’t to be snuffed at. That being said, it might surprise some that when Sony was singing the praises of their latest flagship console, it apparently came with a few more bells and whistles. While these deductions certainly didn’t derail it, you have to admit that the promise of included features such multiple Ethernet ports, various HDMI ports and even four front-facing USB ports suddenly being dropped is a little on the nose. We’ve heard of trimming the fat, but come on Sony did you think we wouldn’t notice?

For Xbox fans, this one had to hurt. This was supposed to be the exclusive title that owners could rally behind. After all, it was an action RPG developed by the likes of Platinum Games, the guys behind the Bayonetta series and Metal Gear Rising! Crazy third-person spectacles are kind of their bread and butter. And to top it all off, it allowed players to play as both a cocky sword & gun wielder, as well as a freaking dragon. What could go wrong? Well apparently Microsoft wasn’t all that keen since it got cancelled in January of this year.

#4: “Aliens: Colonial Marines” (2011)

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Talk about a failure on all levels. Not only was the trailer shown at E3 so different from the final product that it seemed like it was taken from an entirely different game, but what we ended up with was a bug-ridden mess. Even if you disregard the fact that the xenomorphs’ A.I were downright incompetent, what hurts the game the most is its radical shift in tone. What was promised to be a horrifying yet compelling FPS centred around players making a last stand against an alien horde…turned out to be a boring and generic shooter that had you going up against humans most of the time. Humans!

Despite the fact that the Fable series has had more than its fair share of broken promises, the games did resonate with an audience, which makes the fate of the franchise and Lionhead Studios even more sad. In what was meant to be a big departure from the rest of the series, Legends was revealed as a cooperative action RPG wherein players could create their own adventures. However, whatever promise the game might have shown was quashed with repeated delays. It barely managed to get past the gate with its beta before getting cancelled outright. Unfortunately, the company sank with it soon after.

#2: “No Man’s Sky” (2014)

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This one is still painful to think about, and even with the trickle of additional content that has been poured into it as of late, we can’t forgive or forget the travesty that was this game’s initial release. Sean Murray had promised us a galaxy like no other, filled with exploration, a near infinite amount of planets to discover, a vast amount of aliens to interact with and a whole plethora of other amazing content. What did we get instead? Planets, weapons and species that all looked the same, zero factions, and worst of all the main objective of travelling to the centre of the galaxy amounted to literally nothing. Thanks Sean.

#1: “Star Wars 1313” (2012)

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A gritty Star Wars game that would focus on the early days of Boba Fett. Sounds like an instant win. Or at least it would have been if it wasn’t cancelled. What could have been both an exploration into one of saga’s most iconic characters as well as a blaster filled action-fest was left as a pipedream with nothing more than an epic E3 trailer to its name. After Disney absorbed LucasArts, the game was doomed. This merger may have eventually given us The Force Awakens, but it also resulted in utter disappointment for gamers and Star Wars fans alike.