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Franchise: Sonic The Hedgehog
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Attachment Due to the cancellation of the animated series "Sonic Underground", its storyline was left unresolved. However, staff members involved in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics had considered finishing the storyline: writer Ian Flynn had thought about writing a new story that could serve to wrap up where the original series left off, but felt it would be "stepping on the original creatives' toes," and that even if he was allowed to do it the story likely wouldn't see the light of day for at least two years. Originally, "Sonic Universe" issue 50 was intended to be the official epilogue for the show, with a preview cover being released. However, the epilogue was cancelled, and the issue instead featured a story centered around Metal Sonic.

In early 2013, Ian Flynn revealed that material from "Sonic Underground" was off-limits: this was the reason why the epilogue was put on hold. He also stated plans to include the epilogue as part of "Lost Hedgehog Tales", a written document featuring Sonic comic material that will no longer be used, suggesting that the epilogue was no longer possible. In June 2017, any chance of a "Sonic Underground" epilogue by Archie was precluded when Sega announced that the comics produced by them had been cancelled.
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Cancelled Release, Corporate Affairs, Development, Early Idea, General, Multimedia Adaptation, Real Life
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month December 31, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy V (1992)
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Attachment The translation group RPGe's 1998 English translation of Final Fantasy V is considered to be one of the most widely-played and influential fan translations in video game history. It gained this reputation because it released before Squaresoft's first official translation in Final Fantasy Anthology in late 1999, and despite RPGe primarily consisting of inexperienced teenagers, it was regarded as a better translation than the official one, leading many Western players to first experience the game through it.

The first translation attempts stemmed from widespread confusion over Squaresoft not releasing three FF games in the West: Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, and FFV. Their decision to release Final Fantasy VII internationally under its original numbering after Final Fantasy VI was released in the West a few years earlier as the "third" game in the series also contributed to this.

The co-creator of RPGe, named Shadow, was inspired by an incomplete FFII translation by users Demi and Som2freak (the latter having later lent Shadow tools to work on FFV), and started translating FFV by making flashcards for which hex code corresponded to each Japanese and English character in the game's data. He promoted his efforts online using photoshopped FFV images and recruited other users to create RPGe, including translator David Timko, and a computer engineering major named Hooie who also asked Japanese instructors at his university to help translate some enemy names. RPGe's plan was to directly edit their English script into the text files of a ROM of the Japanese version, but their work was slow and tedious due to them having little experience with fan translations and being out of touch with fledgling emulation communities. This lead to technical issues with their text and sprite editing software, and English characters being poorly displayed under conditions that were originally designed for larger Japanese characters. The group also suffered from internal factionalism, and since Shadow promoted himself as the public face of the project, he found that he could not handle the attention and controversy that came from how seriously he took the project and RPGe itself, seeing the translation effort as a vital service to the Squaresoft fan community. After Demi published a lengthy post parodying Shadow, he "snapped" and left RPGe. The co-founders of RPGe would also eventually step down, but other users would take over and start their own work.

A user named Myria, who had argued against RPGe's hex editing approach to no avail, split off from their efforts beforehand to work on a separate translation. Sharing similar setbacks to them, she gradually parsed through the code used to handle the text files, and edited it so it could recognize English characters of different sizes and fit more in a dialogue box. Som2freak helped translate the script for a time, but then left the project after bringing on a new editor, named harmony7, who started heavily revising Som2freak's translations to his chagrin despite seeing several issues with it.

One of the most controversial aspects of the translation was the main character's name. Squaresoft's later English translation named him "Bartz", but RPGe's translation named him "Butz", which many joked sounds like "butts". Myria claimed that Butz was the most accurate translation based on documents and official merchandise using it "the way we'd written it" (for reference, the Romanized version of the Japanese name "バッツ" comes out as "Battsu"). However, Butz is used in real life as an actual German surname with a different pronunciation, the vowel being an "oe" sound like in the English words "put" and "good". Therefore, Bartz would make more sense to match up with the vowels in the Japanese name than Butz, and also fits better as a German first name since Bartz is a pet name for Bartholomäus (Bartholomew).

The bulk of Myria's technical work ended in October 1997, with harmony7 still working to revise the entire script until something unexpected happened. An early version of the fan translation mysteriously appeared on a Geocities website with others taking credit for it. This prompted RPGe to release their work up to that point as "v0.96" on October 17, 1997, with the final patch eventually being released in June 1998. The translation patch received acclaim for its technical aspects and near-professional writing quality, and influenced other players to become translators, including Clyde Mandelin who would later create the English fan translation of Mother 3. Squaresoft never contacted RPGe about the translation, and while their 1999 localization of the game was seen as inferior to RPGe's, Myria would later opine that Square Enix's 2006 localization in Final Fantasy V: Advance was better than theirs. Myria continued hacking and reverse-engineering games and eventually earned a job at an undisclosed major video game company.
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Cancelled Release, Complaint, Development, Emulation, Etymology, Fan Translation, General, Leak, Merchandise, Mistranslation, Modding, Name Change, Parody, Real Life, Regional Difference, Social Media, Technology, Website
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month December 24, 2023
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The Last of Us Part II
The Last of Us Part II (2020)
subdirectory_arrow_right The Last of Us (Franchise)
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Attachment At E3 2018, it was initially confirmed that The Last of Us Part II would feature a multiplayer mode, following the Factions online multiplayer mode featured in The Last of Us that received more uniformly positive praise from fans and critics compared to the main game. However, in September 2019, the same month the PlayStation 3 servers for the original Factions mode were shut down, it was revealed that Part II would solely focus on a single-player narrative, and that development on the multiplayer mode had been spun-off from the main game to continue work separately. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Naughty Dog increased job openings related to the multiplayer mode's development and continued seeking out additional staff to work on it, implying that it had increased in scope to a full game.

At Summer Game Fest 2022, Neil Druckmann showed off the game's first piece of concept art and confirmed that they were working on it as its own game, revealing that the team's ambitious scope had caused it to be "as big" as the single-player modes. The game would feature its own storyline that would be told in a unique way compared to the previous two games, take place in a new location in the United States (presumably San Francisco based on the art featuring the South of Market neighborhood and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge), and feature brand new characters.

The development of the game, which was later revealed in 2023 to be named "The Last of Us Online", was led by co-game directors Anthony Newman and Vinit Agarwal, and narrative lead Joseph Pettinati. Starting with the Summer Game Fest appearance, Druckmann reiterated that more details on the game would be revealed in 2023, and shared a second piece of concept art in January of that year.

In May, it was revealed in a Bloomberg article that Sony had scaled back development on the game and moved many of its developers to other projects, with Naughty Dog putting out their own statement on Twitter shortly after the article's release which revealed that they "realized what's best for the game is to give it more time." As a result of Sony's more recent heavy investments into "games as a service" (GaaS) products in an attempt to centralize control over and make more money on its games after release, they requested Bungie, a studio which Sony had recently acquired in July 2022, to re-evaluate the game. Bungie questioned its ability to maintain player engagement for long periods of time, which was ultimately what caused Sony to intervene.

According to Naughty Dog in a December 2023 blog post, the entire time since the multiplayer mode was first being worked on for The Last of Us Part II in 2018, The Last of Us Online had still been in pre-production, with the multiplayer developers' vision changing and taking time to form into something they were more satisfied with. With Sony's GaaS investments affecting the game, if they wanted to put the game into full production, they would need to take all of their resources away from the single-player games they had become known for and switch to a fully live service model with the ability to put out long-term post-launch content updates.

After Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells retired in July, the company faced an internal restructuring, eventually leading to at least 25 contracted developers being laid off from Naughty Dog's staff in October, contributing to a wave of layoffs across the video game industry at the time. With a reduced, restructured workforce and other major upcoming single-player projects at the helm, Naughty Dog was inequipped to become a live service studio, and announced in December that they cancelled the development of The Last of Us Online after more than three years of work.
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Cancelled Release, Development, Early Idea, Financial Affairs, General, Online Play, Real Life
person ProtoSnake calendar_month December 17, 2023
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E3 2018 confirmation article:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-last-of-us-2-has-multiplayer-naughty-dog-confi/1100-6459784/

Multiplayer standalone game update articles:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/features/the-last-of-us-part-2-exclusive-interview-neil-druckmann-ellie/
https://www.vg247.com/the-last-of-us-part-2-wont-have-multiplayer-after-all-update

Naughty Dog tweet confirming continued development:
https://twitter.com/naughty_dog/status/1177392945458286595

Naughty Dog multiplayer job listings increase article and blog post:
https://www.naughtydog.com/blog/celebrating_the_last_of_us_day_2021
https://www.ign.com/articles/naughty-dog-on-the-last-of-us-multiplayer-project-in-short-were-working-on-it

Summer Game Fest 2022 announcement and first piece of concept art:
https://www.polygon.com/23161755/the-last-of-us-part-2-tlou2-multiplayer-release
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-last-of-us-standalone-multiplayer-game-new-details-story-concept-art
https://www.gamesradar.com/the-last-of-us-is-getting-a-standalone-multiplayer-game/
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/the-last-of-us-multiplayer-game-new-story-large-naughty-dog/

Second piece of concept art:
https://www.naughtydog.com/blog/the_last_of_us_10th_anniversary_kickoff

Development scaling back article:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-26/-last-of-us-multiplayer-video-game-faces-setbacks-at-sony

Naughty Dog co-president retirement and restructuring:
https://kotaku.com/naughty-dog-neil-druckmann-evan-wells-tlou-president-1850633642
https://www.naughtydog.com/blog/neil_druckmann_naughty_dog_studio_leadership_team

October layoffs article:
https://kotaku.com/naughty-dog-ps5-playstation-sony-last-us-part-3-layoffs-1850893794

Naughty Dog statement on scaling back development:
https://twitter.com/Naughty_Dog/status/1662166716892479488

Cancellation articles and blog post:
https://www.naughtydog.com/blog/an_update_on_the_last_of_us_online
https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/14/24002141/naughty-dog-the-last-of-us-online-multiplayer-canceled
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-last-of-us-online-finally-cancelled-because-naughty-dog-thinks-it-will-severely-impact-development-on-future-single-player-games/
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong (1981)
subdirectory_arrow_right Radar Scope (Game)
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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).
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Cancelled Release, Development, Early Idea, Inspiration, Unreleased Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month December 13, 2023
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Mario Lemieux Hockey
Mario Lemieux Hockey (1991)
subdirectory_arrow_right Atari Lynx (Platform), Atari Corporation (Company)
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Atari Corporation wanted to license out the likeness of hockey player Mario Lemieux for a Lynx game that would've been titled "Super Mario Hockey" as a jab at Nintendo and their Super Mario franchise disguised as a reference to Lemieux's nickname. The game was never made, but eventually Lemieux's likeness would be licensed out to Sega for a 1991 hockey game.
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Cancelled Release, Console Wars, Development, Early Idea, False Advertising, In-Joke
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month December 4, 2023
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Half-Life: Decay
Half-Life: Decay (2001)
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The game was originally planned to release on PC and it even had a completed port. However, this didn't happen. According to Patrick Deupree (one of the game's programmers), this was "due to powers beyond our control".

A fan-made recreation was released in 2008.
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Bonus Content, Cancelled Release, Corporate Affairs, Development, Early Idea
person ZpaceJ0ck0 calendar_month November 30, 2023
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Kingdom Hearts III
Kingdom Hearts III (2019)
subdirectory_arrow_right Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross] (Game), Kingdom Hearts (Franchise)
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Attachment 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.
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Artwork/Illustration, Asset Reuse, Cancelled Release, Customization, Development, Early Idea, Leak, Level Design, Online Play, Opening Logo, Prototype, Rumor, Similarities, Theory, Unreleased Content, Unused Character, Unused Code, Unused Content
person PirateGoofy calendar_month November 28, 2023
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Tetris Attack
Tetris Attack (1996)
subdirectory_arrow_right Panel de Pon (Game), Killer Instinct (Collection)
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According to the British magazine Nintendo Magazine System, before settling on Yoshi's Island characters for Tetris Attack, Nintendo reportedly asked Rare to replace Panel de Pon's fairies with characters from the Killer Instinct series.
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Cancelled Release, Development, Early Idea, Regional Difference, Reskin, Unreleased Content, Unused Character, Unused Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 23, 2023
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Neopets Browser
Neopets Browser (1999)
This trivia has been marked as "Not Safe for Work".
It may not be appropriate for all visitors and definitely isn't appropriate for work or school environments.
Click here to unhide it.
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Cancelled Release, Censorship, Complaint, Development, Glitch, LGBTQ+, Meme, Plagiarism, Real Life
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 23, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Basic overview, and also source for hedgehogs, the gay ban, and the plagiarism:
https://www.jellyneo.net/nfts/

Another basic overview, mentioning the contest, denials, and the hedgehogs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/pzmcy2/pet_site_game_neopets_introduces_nfts_burns/

Neopets Metaverse team Soyjak tweet:
https://www.jellyneo.net/?comments=13868

Neopets ending NFT support announcement:
https://www.jellyneo.net/?comments=14391
Star Fox Adventures
Star Fox Adventures (2002)
subdirectory_arrow_right Star Fox 64 (Game)
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During the development of Star Fox Adventures, Nintendo considered re-releasing Star Fox 64 for GameCube, likely as a pre-order bonus similar to how The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was re-released with the first ever release of "Ura Zelda" or Master Quest as a pre-order bonus for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
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Bonus Content, Cancelled Release, Development, Pre-Order
person Dinoman96 calendar_month November 9, 2023
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Platform: Nintendo GameCube
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Attachment Among the files uncovered in a massive 2020 breach of internal server data from Nintendo are documents surrounding Project BB2, a never-released, iQue-branded version of the GameCube for the Chinese market. According to an executive summary from January 30, 2004, this system would've played games off of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs rather than the GameCube's proprietary format; consequently, it also would've been compatible with audio CDs and DVD video like the Panasonic Q. Project BB2 was also intended to feature karaoke support, owed to karaoke's high popularity in China.
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Cancelled Release, Corporate Affairs, Development, Early Idea, Leak, Music, Real Life, Unreleased Hardware
person VinchVolt calendar_month November 9, 2023
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Okage: Shadow King
Okage: Shadow King (2001)
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Zener Works was originally working on a game for the Panasonic M2 prior to that system's cancellation. Sony would later contact them in June 1997 about making a game for the original PlayStation, thus leading to Okage's development. However, the project was moved to the PlayStation 2 per Sony's request the day before they announced their next-generation console on March 1, 1999. This lead to the graphics and coding being redone in order to be compatible with the Emotion Engine. Programmer Yasushi Takeda noted that debugging proved to be a challenge due to the company working with the console in an early state, and the appropriate tools not being available.
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Cancelled Release, Debug, Development, Early Idea, Real Life
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month November 5, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Christmas Massacre
Christmas Massacre (2021)
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While Christmas Massacre was confirmed to be coming to PlayStation consoles, Puppet Combo revealed that the game would not be coming to the Nintendo Switch or Xbox consoles, claiming the game was "too crazy" for them.
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Cancelled Release, Development
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month November 4, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Save Mary
Save Mary (2005)
subdirectory_arrow_right Atari 2600 (Platform)
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Save Mary! supposedly took 2 years in development before being cancelled, giving it one of the longest development cycles for a game in the Atari 2600 library.
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Cancelled Release, Development, Statistics
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 4, 2023
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3D Pocket Pool
3D Pocket Pool (2001)
subdirectory_arrow_right Wario Pool (Game)
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Attachment 3D Pocket Pool was at one point pitched to Nintendo as a Wario game titled Wario Pool. Developer Nick Pelling's website contains a GIF featuring the intro to the would-be Game Boy title, showing Wario sitting in his castle from Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 and watching a sports newscast late at night. He then gets a telephone call from a reporter asking if he will be competing in a pool tournament the next day. Wario declines, saying he does not want any more "meaningless victories", until two new challengers appear on the newscast: a pair of literal pool sharks who insult Wario while being interviewed, motivating him to join the tournament and claim their heads as a trophy.
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Cancelled Release, Development, Early Idea, Unused Character, Unused Cutscene
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 3, 2023
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3D Pinball: Space Cadet
3D Pinball: Space Cadet (1995)
subdirectory_arrow_right PC (Microsoft Windows) (Platform)
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At an unknown point after 3D Pinball: Space Cadet's removal from Windows hardware starting with Vista, there was an attempt within Microsoft Garage (Microsoft's program for experimental, non-profitable employee projects) to revive the game with compatibility for current Windows operating systems. While the port was finished, it could not be publicly released due to the 1994 contract with Cinematronics (now merged into THQ Nordic) stipulating that the game could not be released as an independent entity, only bundled with Windows hardware.
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Cancelled Release, Console Difference, Corporate Affairs, Development, Minigame, Remake, Unreleased Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 30, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Kazooie (1998)
subdirectory_arrow_right Banjo-Tooie (Game), Diddy Kong Racing (Game), Dream: Land of Giants (Game)
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Attachment Tiptup is a recurring NPC character in the Banjo-Kazooie series that, along with Banjo, also made his debut in Diddy Kong Racing in 1997. However, Tiptup was originally the name of a turtle in Dream: Land of Giants, the game that would eventually morph into Banjo-Kazooie. Halfway through the development of BK, the development team behind Diddy Kong Racing (or Pro-Am 64 as it was called before Diddy Kong was included later on) were in need of names for their racers, one of which happened to be a turtle, and thus it was given the Tiptup name. Tiptup was then incorporated into future Rare games like Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.
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Cancelled Release, Development, Early Idea, General
person Dinoman96 calendar_month October 29, 2023
comment Comment (1) | link Source
Daze Before Christmas
Daze Before Christmas (1994)
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Daze Before Christmas additional programmer Carl-Henrik Skårstedt has claimed that he was told by Sunsoft that the game was cancelled shortly after Sega started producing cartridges for the game due to Sunsoft USA's closure, though the game would eventually release in Europe and Australia.
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Cancelled Release, Development, Regional Difference
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 26, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator
Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator (2017)
subdirectory_arrow_right Ultimate Custom Night (Game)
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On February 16, 2018, Scott Cawthon made a Steam post about a possible free update for Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, those being an endless tycoon and an ultimate custom night:

"So, on that note, what sounds like more fun for an update, an endless tycoon mode with new items and new day-to-day challenges, or some kind of ultimate custom night (featuring lots of characters)? And obviously any updates would be free!"

Later on, Scott would update the post, saying:

"Based on the communities response to the update ideas, I've decided to start working on an Ultimate Custom Night for Pizzeria Simulator! Be watching Scottgames.com over the coming months to check on my progress! (This doesn't necessarily mean that an Endless Pizzeria Mode won't happen eventually!)"

However, Ultimate Custom Night became such a big project that Scott later decided to make it its own game. and the "Endless Pizzeria" mode has yet to make any known progress if started at all.
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Cancelled Release, Development, Early Idea, General
person Violett calendar_month October 24, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Collection: Sega Superstars
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A Sega All Stars fighting/football game similar to the Mario Strikers series was in development at one point, only to have been scrapped for unknown reasons.
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Cancelled Release, Development
person CuriousUserX90 calendar_month October 17, 2023
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