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Where The Bloody Hell Are Ya? Five Games That Have Gone Missing Since Announcement

It’s been all quiet on the update front

Every year tons of games are announced, all at various stages of the development cycle. Once a project is revealed, it’s common for the studio to go quiet and give infrequent updates, as they’re head down, bum up working on actually making the game. With all the games currently in active development it’s easy to miss updates from time to time. However, some projects are announced and then seemingly vanish off the face of the Earth, leading fans to fear the worst, even more so when those games have release windows that pass by without any news. Understandably, the impacts of the COVID pandemic have played a big part in the delay of video games over the past few years, but it’s hard to understand how a project can go so long without an update. 

Below are five projects that have been super quiet since their announcement, leaving fans to wonder just what the hell is happening with their development.

A Quiet Place

Announced in October 2021 by Saber Interactive, A Quiet Place is a story-driven game that will tell a new story set in the post-apocalyptic universe of the popular film series where aliens that hunt by sound have taken over Earth.

The project is being developed by iLLOGIKA and EP1T0ME, with iLLOGIKA’s Creative Director Hervé Sliwa saying that “The A Quiet Place video game will let fans experience the tension of the films with a level of immersion they’ve never felt before,” although he left iLLOGIKA and the project in April 2022 according to his LinkedIn.

It was initially slated for a 2022 release with more info to come in late 2021, however neither happened. In fact, since it was announced there hasn’t been a single piece of information about the game – not even a social media post to address the radio silence. Whether it has anything to do with the third film’s delay, which is now set to release in 2024,  is anyone’s guess at this point.

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Personally, I am still…quietly…excited for the A Quiet Place video game. I’m intrigued to see how the developers translate the sound-based rules of the world into game mechanics – I just hope it’s not first-person hide-and-seek stealth. Hopefully we get some news soon.

Dustborn

The new game from Red Thread Games and Ragnar Tørnquist, Dustborn was unveiled during GamesRadar’s Future Game Show in June 2020. It’s set in 2030 in a post-infodemic alternate America known as the Divided States of America and sees you play as Pax, a member of a resistance team disguised as a travelling band who are transporting a package across the country.

The premise sounds cool and it has a beautiful art style, but the real hook is that combat is based on the usage of words as weapons and not guns, a mechanic I am very intrigued to see in action.

Red Thread Games tweeted that the game was launching in 2021, but 2021 (and 2022) came and went without any updates on the game, let alone a release. However, it was revealed shortly after the game’s announcement that Quantic Dream had taken over publishing duties, so it’s likely that this partnership allowed the team to expand on the project. The fact that Red Thread Games were still hiring for Dustborn in March 2022 supports this theory. But aside from job positions, we’ve not had an update on Dustborn since the initial announcement. Although, the game’s Steam page has recently been updated to show an April 1, 2024 release date, but that’s the only place that information has popped up, so it seems like it may not be the correct date.

Dustborn has been on my radar ever since it was announced, so I am really hoping that we hear an update soon.

Plan 8

Revealed at Pearl Abyss Connect in 2019, Plan 8 is a third-person MMO shooter from Pearl Abyss, and sees Counter-Strike co-creator Minh Le serving as the project’s Technical Advisor. The game’s reveal trailer took the world by storm, with its bombastic action on full display, showing players rocking exosuits and causing all kinds of pain to enemy drones and robots.

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Despite a strong announcement, the game’s social media channels went cold in January 2020, leaving people excited about Plan 8 scratching their heads about what exactly is going on at Pearl Abyss. MMOs are not small projects to make, so whether Pearl Abyss showed the game off too early is anyone’s guess. 

Given we’ve not seen or heard anything in over three years, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the development of Plan 8 has been put on hold or cancelled. But in promising news, Pearl Abyss does mention Plan 8 in its Q3 2022 earnings report under the Growth Strategy section, and a Redditor found a news piece from IGC2021 that states that development is going well, so it does seem that the Korean company hasn’t given up on the project. Fingers crossed Pearl Abyss has some news to share soon.

Pragmata

Capcom unveiled its newest IP Pragmata in June 2020, targeting a 2022 release date before the Japanese company delayed the project to 2023 in November 2021. The reveal trailer caught a lot of people’s attention with its sci-fi-infused premise that could easily be mistaken for something from the Hideo Kojima playbook.

However, other than the initial trailer we haven’t seen anything new from the title aside from a new artwork that was shown off when the game was delayed, and given it’s set to release this year, many people are wondering just what Pragmata is and when Capcom is going to give us punters a proper look at the title and its gameplay. 

Capcom has big plans for the sci-fi project, with the company claiming it wants to “establish Pragmata as one of its core brands,” which is likely why it’s being cautious and taking its time. Add to this that the Resident Evil developer has stated that the project is being worked on by new and young employees and it makes sense that Pragmata is perhaps taking longer than anticipated. However, we hold out hope that Capcom will deliver on its plans to launch the game in 2023.

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Unknown 9: Awakening

Based on the popular transmedia series which includes a novel, comic book and a podcast, Unknown 9: The Awakening was announced at Gamescom opening night in August 2020 with a 2021 release window, but to this day that’s all we’ve heard about the project. 

What we do know is that The Awakening is a third-person action-adventure game set in Kolkata, India, and sees you play as Haroona, a young child with the power to manipulate the unseen, as well as the ability to access another dimension known as The Fold. It’s being developed by Reflector Entertainment, a studio publisher Bandai Namco acquired in 2020, and is the company’s first game.

Practically nothing more is known about Awakening, although Bandai did make reference to the title in its 2022 financial report, and Reflector Entertainment advertised available jobs relating to its video game project on Instagram in November 2022, which suggests that it is still coming but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still a ways off.

Hands up if you forgot about one or several of those games. Are there any games that you were excited about when they were revealed that have fallen off the face of the Earth?

Written By Zach Jackson

Despite a childhood playing survival horrors, point and clicks and beat ’em ups, these days Zach tries to convince people that Homefront: The Revolution is a good game while pining for a sequel to The Order: 1886 and a live-action Treasure Planet film. Carlton, Burnley FC & SJ Sharks fan. Get around him on Twitter @tightinthejorts

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