5 Exciting Games Stuck In Development For More Than 10 Years

Development hell is a vicious cycle

Developing a competent video game is tough. Some games are such masterpieces that it's a wonder how they ever got made at all. There are so many moving parts, especially since studio sizes are often in the triple digits, that kudos needs to go to the games that are released despite going through various trials and tribulations.

However, some games get stuck in what is referred to in the industry as "development hell." Over the years, some of these have eventually been released, such as Duke Nukem Forever, Metroid Dread, and Skull & Bones. Others get canceled when the studio heads or publisher decides it's not worth the investment for the end product anymore. Meanwhile, some remain stuck in that cycle. Here are five games that have been in development for more than 10 years and still haven't been released (though some are, finally, near on the horizon).

1 Beyond Good & Evil 2

When you saw the headline of this article, I have little doubt that Ubisoft’s Beyond Good & Evil 2 was the first game that you thought of. These days, it's the poster child for games trapped in development hell. It started pre-production in 2007, which means that it's been in the works for a whopping 19 years. While most studios would have canceled the project by now, Ubisoft confirmed as recently as January 2026 that the game is still being worked on, as six projects were canned; Beyond Good & Evil 2 was not one of them.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 is billed as an open-world action-adventure in space, and is a prequel to the events of the first game. According to a Eurogamer report on a now-defunct Ubisoft blog post, the player can create their own character and an interview on The Verge with Michel Ancel, the ex-director of the game, revealed it's more akin to an RPG than the first game. Gameplay revolves around traveling from one planet to another, each one with its own society, quests, characters, and more.

We saw a Beyond Good & Evil 2 reveal trailer in 2008, which featured Jade and Pey'j from the first game. That was followed by a leaked trailer in 2009, showing gameplay of Jade fleeing from the authorities down a busy street. However, the most notable showing of the game came during E3 2017, with a trailer that took the event by storm. It received one more trailer at E3 2018, but that was the last public showing the game has had.

2 Squadron 42

Star Citizen is a story many of you reading will also be familiar with, mostly due to its incredibly expensive in-game ships that can essentially be preordered, and the fact developer Cloud Imperium Games recently hit $1 billion in funding. However, while that game is arguably in development hell, having entered pre-production in 2011, there has been a playable alpha version of the game available since 2014.

Did you know that Cloud Imperium is also working on Squadron 42, a single-player first-person shooter set within the Star Citizen universe? You'd be forgiven for having not heard about it because it was announced very shortly after Star Citizen in 2012, but has flown even more under the radar. It was originally scheduled to be released in 2014, which means it may hold the record for the longest delay beyond its original release date. In December 2025, the developer reported that the game is fully playable and feature complete, with a release date set for 2026… but with only four months left in the year at the time of writing and no sign of it, that's looking increasingly unlikely.

It's an ambitious project, though, set to release in an episodic format. The first episode is slated to be up to 20 hours long, with two subsequent episodes planned. It also has a star-studded cast, including but not limited to Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, Damson Idris, Henry Cavill, and Eleanor Tomlinson. Here's hoping we get another update on its release date before the year is out.

3 Project Awakening

Project Awakening was officially revealed in 2018, but the game itself was announced at Cygames Next 2016 in Tokyo. A behind-closed-doors vertical slice of gameplay was shown to the press at E3 2018, and according to Game Informer, it featured a knight fighting a "scaly lizard-like monster" with realistic movement. Combat was apparently a combination of styles from games such as Monster Hunter and Dragon's Dogma.

In 2021, more footage was shown at the Cygames Tech Conference, but it was mostly a tech demo showing terrain generation and weather effects, before panning to a soldier standing on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a vast landscape with trees and mountains. Since then, we haven't seen anything new, but in an interview with Famitsu in issue 1955 (thanks, Game Observer), Cygames CEO Koichi Watanabe described development as "progressing steadily" and that the game is "starting to take shape." I mean, you'd hope so after a decade of development.

4 Grand Theft Auto 6

Grand Theft Auto 6 is almost here. We can basically taste it. It's probably going to break all the video game sales records we can think of. But it isn't here yet, and it entered pre-production in 2014, which means that while full development didn't start until 2018, the whole cycle has been 12 years long.

Saying that GTA 6 has been in development hell might be a little harsh, though, because other than a few delays to its release date (it was originally aiming for fall 2025, then May 2026, and now November 2026), there's not much reason to believe it's been a difficult time for the game itself. Rockstar Games, the studio behind it, however, is another story.

In September 2022, a major breach leaked a plethora of internal development videos that revealed lots of new gameplay information, including the fact there are two protagonists, the return to Vice City, and more. In April 2024, Rockstar requested all employees return to working from offices for "productivity and security in the final stages of development," which led to severe backlash, and in October 2025, 34 employees were fired, allegedly because they were trying to unionize with labor organizers.

So it hasn't been entirely smooth sailing for the most anticipated video game in history, but there's no reason to believe development itself has taken a hit. We'll see once and for all when it launches on Nov. 19.

5 The Wolf Among Us 2

The Wolf Among Us was released in 2013, and it was one of Telltale Games' most successful. It was praised by critics and consumers alike, following the traditional Telltale narrative structure, and acting as a prequel to the Fables comic series. The Wolf Among Us 2 was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2017, with a release date slated for the following year, but after a delay to 2019, Telltale Games closed down and the sequel was canceled.

Telltale was brought back from the dead by a company called LCG Entertainment, and The Wolf Among Us 2 was being developed in collaboration with AdHoc Studio, which was made up of former Telltale staff who were let go from the previous iteration of the company. After several more delays through 2023 and 2024, alongside more layoffs at Telltale and AdHoc pulling out of the project due to disagreements between the two studios, The Wolf Among Us 2 was re-revealed at Summer Game Fest 2026.

This means that we've known about The Wolf Among Us 2 for nine years, and by the time it releases in its scheduled window of 2027 — if it doesn't encounter any more delays, that is — it will hit the 10-year threshold. Much like the first game, the sequel will have five episodes, however it's reported to have a much darker tone. We should see more fairly soon… we hope.

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