A long history of successes in the games industry usually means a HUGE fanbase for the franchise. This means more people to buy games, more raves and positive (or negative) reviews and more requests(complaints) to add content, story and usually a new title under the franchise. To sate the fanbase mob, it’s common for the company take steps to take advantage of this situation and release some sort of bait to keep the fan’s interest.

While it’s true that some of these bearfruit like Starcraft II, most of these ideas end up in a pile as vaporware. Here’s my list of my most awaited games that turned to disappointments.

StarCraft Ghost

Starcraft is the best known (depending on who you ask, most newbies only know DOTA… not even Warcraft III) to geeks and gamers as the holy grail of RTS. What more can you ask for when Blizzard announces the release of a game that puts you right in the middle of the war (in Starcraft mythos) and in control of a tight, body hugging clad vixen named Nova?

Simple. That the game reaches more than just an announcement.

In 2002 teased us with the 3rd person tactical action game set for XBOX exclusivity, got a few updates in terms of videos and in game shots, updated the release to go multiplatform then poof. As early as 2006(or as late, 4 years in game production IS quite a lot of time. XP came out in 3, crap at first but.. at least it’s out), Starcraft Ghost was official put on “indefinite hold” status to the dismay of Starcraft communities and geeks that already dream of Nova as their girlfriends.

While Blizzard is still hard at work (or play) with WoW and the upcoming Starcraft II, I guess the only way we’ll get to see Nova is from the game trailers and the full-sized statue sitting idly inside Blizzard HQ’s lobby.

Diablo III

Diablo II hit the shelves and gamers with what can only be described as a cult following. The game first saw the light of day on June 29, 2000, it took over geeks, gamers, and D&D lovers (which are incidentally geeks as well.. who knew? o.O) and kept them glued to their PC screens mindlessly clicking the mouse to kill monster after monster after monster. Considering the sheer number of monsters in the game, that’s a lot of clicking.

The game’s so popular that to date, nearly 8 years after initial release, there’s still quite a number of people playing the game as well as a long of message boards and game sites dedicated to it’s existence. How’s that for a fan base? Blizzard is bound to cash in on the demand for the 3rd title of the game right?

Sadly, Blizzard has NEVER officially confirmed the game’s existence. Blizzard North, the branch of the company concerned with all thinns demonic.. err.. Diablo has broken off to form (some of them at least) a new company several months later, Flagship. The new company is responsible for Hellgate London, probably one of the best known MMORPGs that’s memorable to everyone because it’s servers went down a few hours (2, I think) after launch. Hellgate was supposed to be the successor for Diablo’s legacy but it never lived up to the legacy.

There’s still hope for the game though. April 30, 2008 was the date that Blizzard purchased the domain name Diablo3.com but then again, it’s best not to keep our hopes as was the case with the Elder Scrolls MMO.

Duke Nukem Forever

If there was ONE game that the First Person shooter genre has been infamous for, it’s Duke Nukem Forever. Why? The namesake FOREVER seems to have taken a life of it’s own and the development team, 3D realms, IS taking forever to release the game.

In 1998, we already have a trailer and actual gameplay footage (the video above) that made FPS fans (of then) drool. Three years later, another trailer was put out. Another six years later, we have yet ANOTHER trailer (the one below).

If you compare the initial trailer with the one released last year, the first one looks near completion (on THAT year’s standard) while the latest trailer looks like a fan-made homage video. If the backward trend continues, the next update will probably be just concept art sketches and a replica of Duke’s cigar.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

It’s been on every RPG (at least those that played Final Fantasy VII) nut’s mind ever since Advent Children came out and wow-ed everyone. “If the movie is this good (looking), then there should definitely be a remake.” Note the use of should and definitely. Every Final Fantasy geek has been waiting to gaze on Tifa, Aerith and Yuffie while performing their mundane tasks in the original game like wasting time on the Gold Saucer, picking flowers and everyone’s favorite, staring upward while in dreamy sequence.

Then on E3 2005. Square-Enix released this PS3 tech demo.

Too bad Squaresoft put down their foot on the rumors soon after that.

“It appears that there are often overseas rumors like ‘Are you currently developing a VII remake?’ My apologies, but we’re absolutely not making [such a game].”

But at least they left us with:

“We of course know ourselves what the fans want so we’d like to continue thinking up a variety of things. As long as there are people who want to make it and people who are waiting for it, we don’t want to proclaim ‘the end.’”

While there’s no official confirmation, Square-Enix assured us that a remake was still possible-like all other games on the list-but I’m not holding my breath for it.

Have another defunct’ed game in mind? Post it in the comments and I’ll add it to the list.