Top 10 cancelled Video Games

06. Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Patriots (Ubisoft / Ubisoft)

When the game was initially announced on the cover of the December 2011 issue of Game Informer Magazine, I remember thinking 'No, wait, another one?' But then after thinking more about it, I was like 'Heck yeah!' Rainbow 6 is like Jello - there is always room for more!

Once that idea set in we began to really look forward to this one arriving, especially because it was set to arrive on the Next Gen PS4 and Xbox One as well as PC.

As far as gamers were concerned everything was hunky-dory, then word came that author and Rainbow 6 creator Tom Clancy had died. And died way too young too. His death cast a pall over the game and the series, with many wondering if it would mean the end of his association with the games.

Then Ubisoft announced that it totally did NOT mean that at all! They intend to continue putting Tom Clancy's name on future Tom Clancy titles out of respect for the late author, because they are his creation after all. And gamers saw that it was good.

The plot for the game involved Team Rainbow being called to New York City to deal with a terrorist group calling itself the 'True Patriots' and styling themselves as a populist militia group.

Taking it upon themselves to act as judge, jury, and executioner on behalf of the alleged victims of what they see as Wall Street corruption, they were creating the sort of trouble that Rainbow 6 was created to deal with, and they set out to stop the True Patriots at all costs; even at the price of their own personal morality.

So far this is sounding epic, right? Certainly there was a lot of excitement and support for the game, which makes it all the more difficult to understand why on June 9, 2014, Ubisoft suddenly and without warning announced that Patriots was dead.

Instead of continuing development and releasing the game we had all come to look forward to, they would scrap it and instead make a new game called Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege.

05. Six Days in Fallujah (Atomic / Konami)

When Six Days in Fallujah (SDIF) was first announced it had several things going for it - but those same things also went against it too. For one thing, it was one of the first (if not the first) video games that would cover what was still at the time a hot war and ongoing action, and for another it was also set to be a historical third-person shooter video game. Unfortunately those two issues struck a nerve with the media and the public, a vocal minority among which claimed it was too soon to go there.

Developer Atomic Games was willing, there is no question about that. The game was described by Atomic as being a tactical shooter with historic feel, and was intended from the get go to be the first video game to focus directly on the Iraq War.

The game plot and story were set to follow a squad of U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines Recon, fighting in the Second Battle of Fallujah over the span of six days in November 2004.

The idea of covering what were arguably current events in a video game generated significant controversy, and the result of that was that by April of 2009 game publisher Konami got cold feet and backed out, announcing that it was no longer interested in publishing the game due to the controversy surrounding it.

Atomic was not shy about telling gamers what the game was and why they were making it. In a statement to the press Atomic Games President Peter Tamte explained that one of the divisions in the company had been contracted to develop training tools for the United States Marine Corps.

Tamte explained that among the technical advisers for the project were members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, and that a few months into development the unit was deployed in Iraq, where it then participated in the Second Battle of Fallujah.

Tamte went on to state that "When they came back from Fallujah, they asked us to create a video game about their experiences there, and it seemed like the right thing to do."

Well yeah! That is partly why so many gamers were excited for it - not only was it going to offer gamers the opportunity to relive the battle, it was going to be created with input from the Marines who were actually there.

The goal for Six Days in Fallujah from the start was to create the most realistic military shooter possible, and that naturally generated lots of interest and excitement. But also a lot of controversy and some protest.

Most of the heat originated with British war veterans and a British peace group called 'Stop the War Coalition' but then the news media jumped on board and blew the whole thing out of proportion.

Ironically if they announced the project today, no one would bat an eye, but the heat that was generated back then was sufficient to cause Konami to bail, and in the end no other publisher stepped up and so the gamers were denied their Six Days in Fallujah. D'oh!

Posted: 8th Nov 2014 by CMBF
Tags: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3,