According to Fruit Ninja creator Luke Muscat in a comment on a YouTube video comparing the 1993 and 2023 Super Mario Bros. movies, there was a massive push following Fruit Ninja's success to have it be adapted for TV or cinema, something he attributed to other members of the studio feeling that the other 2 mediums were more "legitimate" in the face of an era where games were not taken as seriously. All of the characters and stories added to Fruit Ninja were made for the purpose of facilitating these unmade adaptations, something Muscat described as "divisive" and compared to having to try and adapt a film that does not exist into a game rather than the other way around.
Comment archived in case it gets deleted (YouTube link contains a comment hyperlink tag): "Great video Patrick and team. I was the designer / creator of Fruit Ninja, which obviously had absolutely ZERO story or character development. After the huge success of the game, (and as I was leaving the project), a push started to get film and TV adaptions made. For some at the studio, getting an adaptation made the whole thing more legitimate, like the property had "made it". Games were still struggling to be taken seriously despite being such a huge global business, but film and TV didn't have that problem. But given how narratively thin the source material was, new characters and story started getting added into the game specifically to support those future jumps to film and TV (and merch I guess). This was very... divisive. It was like having to adapt a film into an existing game... except the film didn't exist yet. It was a time."
When the Grey Faerie's Neopedia article was released, a "Bottled Grey Faerie" item was found in the game's servers. Neopian Times Editorial #90 would later imply that a plotline involving the Grey Faeries was on the way, however nothing has been heard about this since, likely meaning that whatever plotline was planned was either cancelled or delayed indefinitely.
When "THE JOY OF CREATION" was still in development as "The Joy of Creation: Ignited Collection", the first game in the The Joy of Creation series was going to be remade as part of the collection, where it would have been known as "The Joy of Creation: Classic". However, on July 27, 2023, Nikson revealed that he had changed his mind about adding Classic to the collection, instead having it only include The Joy of Creation: Reborn and The Joy of Creation: Story Mode.
One of the developers of Yo! Noid 2 also worked on STRAFE, a game featuring Totino's product placement. Through these food industry connections, said developer managed to contact Domino's Pizza and almost pitched the idea of having some kind of official collaboration. The developers ultimately did not go forward with, as the game's developers didn't feel they had enough energy to go through the hassle of making a pitch document. Despite the pitch not being made, the developers did compile a video of streamers talking about how the game made them hungry for Domino's for the purpose of the pitch.
Aang and Korra were first revealed for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl on the Xbox Podcast with footage from their respective trailers. The CGI portion of Korra's trailer was not played, and following the reveal, Aang's trailer would be posted to YouTube, but not Korra's. This lead some to believe that a CGI trailer for Korra was never actually made until May 2022, when a YouTuber named socks dude discovered the trailer on the website for i95Creative, the studio that edited the promotional material for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.
A prototype exists for a US version of the original Japan-exclusive Puzzle Bobble known as Bubble Buster which removes the Bubble Bobble elements outright, as it was a very common practice for puzzle games at the time. This is somewhat unusual, because no replacement characters were provided, unlike localisations such as Tetris Attack, and Bubble Bobble had already proven itself to be a popular brand in the American market at the time. The logo for Bubble Buster would serve as the basis for the logo of the Neo Geo arcade remake's US release, Bust-A-Move, though that did not remove the Bubble Bobble characters.
According to the Song Production Information provided by D.J.Amuro (aka Takayuki Ishikawa), the song "A" was originally composed for Beatmania IIDX 3rd Style. However, the song was shelved until the release of 7th Style. This was due to the song being considered too difficult for the time, relative to player skill level.
Some unused content that was going to be used in the scrapped sequel is still referenced in the final game. The second installment would have had Drew Blanc and Flux Wildly traveling to the "Train of Thought", where they would meet an animated version of Vincent Van Gogh and have an encounter with a nightmarish dentist. In the opening for the first game, Drew receives a phone call reminder to get a dental filling, and a picture of Van Gogh can be seen on the wall in his workspace. Footage of the animated Van Gogh also appears in the official trailer for the game.
Titenic was finished an indeterminately long time before its release in 2003 (presumably back when the 1997 film "Titanic" was recent), but was temporarily shelved due to declining interest in the Taiwanese Famicom market. Although not stated by any official sources, it could also be incurred that it may have had difficulty releasing due to the film's target audience being very distant from those that video games were marketed to in the 1990s, as it was released with the more pre-teen-boy-targeting reskin, Harry's Legend in 2001, prior to the release of the original Titenic.
Some concepts considered for alternate games to use unsold Radar Scope cabinets for if Donkey Kong couldn't be developed were a Jack & the Beanstalk game, a fishing game, a space shuttle construction game due to space shuttles being a hot news topic at the time, and a game about fighting a disease in the human body, based on a movie (likely Fantastic Voyage).
In 2019, amid a rise in popularity for anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and psuedoscience, a petition was started for Plague Inc. to implement anti-vaccine advocates, or "anti-vaxxers", as a situation that would buff your disease. Ndemic Creations, while noting that anti-vaxxers do technically exist as a smaller part of the "Science Denial" scenario along with flat Earth theorists and climate change deniers, agrees to include the movement as a solo buff for the disease, but did not have an idea for how they would work in gameplay at the time. Anti-vaxxers have not yet been added to the game, but a second buff partially referencing anti-vaxxers, "Fake News", would be added.
Atari Corporation lead Larry Siegel attempted to sell main Atari CEO Jack Tramiel on the idea of making a Jurassic Park game for the unreleased Panther hardware before the book's movie adaptation even entered production. They would've also gained royalties for merchandising and the eventual movie, but Tramiel turned down the offer due to the cost being too high. Siegel claims this is how he "realized that [Atari] would never spend the money to have an anchor title."
In 2019, UK bargain store Aldi attempted a publicity stunt known as the "Teatime Takedown", where parents would send Aldi their childrens' usernames on gaming platforms (with the service being provided for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, and unusually the streaming platform Twitch) and the supermarket would send professional gamers to defeat the child in-game so they would eat their food, though Aldi claimed that the effectiveness of the program may vary. Despite a released commercial for the campaign showing children "rage quitting" FPS games, the hired eSports teams, originating from Veloce, specialized in racing games. This sparked massive backlash within the UK eSports community, to the point where Resolve eSports offered to send its players to help kids fight back against the bullies. Aldi would eventually cancel the campaign and send coupons to those who complained as a form of apology. Print adverts were made, but are not known to have been printed in any magazines or catalogues, and radio and till reciept ads were planned.
A TV adaptation of the de Blob franchise was in production around 2010 to be aired on the SyFy TV channel on a new children's block, which would've used Blob in its branding. This deal got so far that SyFy Kids' logo was included on trailers and promotional items for de Blob 2. Due to the sequel's underperformance, the cartoon would be cancelled, and given Blob's prevalence in preliminary branding and the lack of knowledge on what other series were being planned if any, the cartoon's cancellation likely also led to the SyFy Kids block being cancelled too. SyFy Kids would later be revived in 2013, but airing on the Asian and South African versions of KidsCo with a lineup almost entirely comprised of reruns and syndicated programming.
In 2013, a Kingdom Hearts online mobile game was in development that never saw the light of day. It was to be called "Kingdom Hearts: Fragmented Keys". The game was rumored to feature customizable avatar characters (like Union Cross). It would also have been in 3D instead of Union cross' 2D art style. Most interesting and exciting of all though (gathered from concept art no less) was the Disney world list as the game would feature returning worlds like: Agrabah, Wonderland, a Lilo & Stitch Hawaii world, Space Paranoids/The Grid, London/Neverland, and Dwarf Woodlands. It also included worlds that didn't appear in the series yet but would appear in later games like Union Cross and Kingdom Hearts III, such as: Arendell (Frozen), Kingdom of Corona (Tangled), and Niceland/Game Central Station (Wreck-It Ralph). Finally, and most shockingly, a world based on the Star Wars franchise, although this world's chronology is unknown as concept art show different conflicting eras, such as an image of characters Anakin, Obi-wan, Padme, and Master Yoda in their exact looks from Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie and series in a separatist gunship's hanger as well as a planet that looks similar to Tatooine and an anachronistic Death Star power station room. It is unknown why this game was cancelled.
The version of Panel de Pon included on Nintendo Puzzle Collection was originally intended to be released on the Nintendo 64 in Japan, and a prototype featuring the Panel de Pon fairy characters is known to exist. It did see release on the console in other regions as Pokémon Puzzle League, however.
The SwordQuest series was a series of 4 games developed by Atari, each one having an associated contest to win a one-of-a-kind item from the game made of real gold by finding clues in the game and using them to uncover hidden messages in the attached comic book, then coming to Atari headquarters to compete in a contest version of the respective game. The advertised prizes were:
•Talisman of Penultimate Truth, Earthworld's prize •Chalice of Light, Fireworld's prize •Crown of Life, Waterworld's prize •The Philosopher's Stone, Airworld's prize •The Sword of Ultimate Sorcery, the grand prize
Halfway through the series, the video game crash of 1983 hit, and it was put to a halt, leaving Airworld, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery unreleased. The Chalice of Light is the only item known to still exist, with all others being believed to have been melted down at some point.
In Atari 50, a game based on Airworld would see release, though it was not based on the work done for the game back in the 1980s.
According to a hidden credit in the game's code, the Atari 2600 version of Midnight Magic was released 3 years after it was completed in 1984, likely for reasons relating to the 1983 US video game crash.
Hard 'n' Heavy was originally conceived as a sequel to The Great Giana Sisters titled Giana 2 - Arthur and Martha in Future World, but was changed due to the threats the developers had received from Nintendo over the previous Giana game. Screenshots and a box art for Giana 2 exist, and show that seemingly only the character of Giana was removed in the transition to Hard 'n' Heavy, but the version of the game with Giana is not known to exist.
Aang and Korra were first revealed for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl on the Xbox Podcast with footage from their respective trailers. The CGI portion of Korra's trailer was not played, and following the reveal, Aang's trailer would be posted to YouTube, but not Korra's. This lead some to believe that a CGI trailer for Korra was never actually made until May 2022, when a YouTuber named socks dude discovered the trailer on the website for i95Creative, the studio that edited the promotional material for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.
A prototype exists for a US version of the original Japan-exclusive Puzzle Bobble known as Bubble Buster which removes the Bubble Bobble elements outright, as it was a very common practice for puzzle games at the time. This is somewhat unusual, because no replacement characters were provided, unlike localisations such as Tetris Attack, and Bubble Bobble had already proven itself to be a popular brand in the American market at the time. The logo for Bubble Buster would serve as the basis for the logo of the Neo Geo arcade remake's US release, Bust-A-Move, though that did not remove the Bubble Bobble characters.
Some unused content that was going to be used in the scrapped sequel is still referenced in the final game. The second installment would have had Drew Blanc and Flux Wildly traveling to the "Train of Thought", where they would meet an animated version of Vincent Van Gogh and have an encounter with a nightmarish dentist. In the opening for the first game, Drew receives a phone call reminder to get a dental filling, and a picture of Van Gogh can be seen on the wall in his workspace. Footage of the animated Van Gogh also appears in the official trailer for the game.
In 2019, UK bargain store Aldi attempted a publicity stunt known as the "Teatime Takedown", where parents would send Aldi their childrens' usernames on gaming platforms (with the service being provided for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, and unusually the streaming platform Twitch) and the supermarket would send professional gamers to defeat the child in-game so they would eat their food, though Aldi claimed that the effectiveness of the program may vary. Despite a released commercial for the campaign showing children "rage quitting" FPS games, the hired eSports teams, originating from Veloce, specialized in racing games. This sparked massive backlash within the UK eSports community, to the point where Resolve eSports offered to send its players to help kids fight back against the bullies. Aldi would eventually cancel the campaign and send coupons to those who complained as a form of apology. Print adverts were made, but are not known to have been printed in any magazines or catalogues, and radio and till reciept ads were planned.
A TV adaptation of the de Blob franchise was in production around 2010 to be aired on the SyFy TV channel on a new children's block, which would've used Blob in its branding. This deal got so far that SyFy Kids' logo was included on trailers and promotional items for de Blob 2. Due to the sequel's underperformance, the cartoon would be cancelled, and given Blob's prevalence in preliminary branding and the lack of knowledge on what other series were being planned if any, the cartoon's cancellation likely also led to the SyFy Kids block being cancelled too. SyFy Kids would later be revived in 2013, but airing on the Asian and South African versions of KidsCo with a lineup almost entirely comprised of reruns and syndicated programming.
In 2013, a Kingdom Hearts online mobile game was in development that never saw the light of day. It was to be called "Kingdom Hearts: Fragmented Keys". The game was rumored to feature customizable avatar characters (like Union Cross). It would also have been in 3D instead of Union cross' 2D art style. Most interesting and exciting of all though (gathered from concept art no less) was the Disney world list as the game would feature returning worlds like: Agrabah, Wonderland, a Lilo & Stitch Hawaii world, Space Paranoids/The Grid, London/Neverland, and Dwarf Woodlands. It also included worlds that didn't appear in the series yet but would appear in later games like Union Cross and Kingdom Hearts III, such as: Arendell (Frozen), Kingdom of Corona (Tangled), and Niceland/Game Central Station (Wreck-It Ralph). Finally, and most shockingly, a world based on the Star Wars franchise, although this world's chronology is unknown as concept art show different conflicting eras, such as an image of characters Anakin, Obi-wan, Padme, and Master Yoda in their exact looks from Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie and series in a separatist gunship's hanger as well as a planet that looks similar to Tatooine and an anachronistic Death Star power station room. It is unknown why this game was cancelled.
The SwordQuest series was a series of 4 games developed by Atari, each one having an associated contest to win a one-of-a-kind item from the game made of real gold by finding clues in the game and using them to uncover hidden messages in the attached comic book, then coming to Atari headquarters to compete in a contest version of the respective game. The advertised prizes were:
Hard 'n' Heavy was originally conceived as a sequel to The Great Giana Sisters titled Giana 2 - Arthur and Martha in Future World, but was changed due to the threats the developers had received from Nintendo over the previous Giana game. Screenshots and a box art for Giana 2 exist, and show that seemingly only the character of Giana was removed in the transition to Hard 'n' Heavy, but the version of the game with Giana is not known to exist.