Over the last decade or so, the gaming industry has undergone major transformations. Gone are the days when a "AAA" game (produced by a mid-to-large-scale publisher) was developed and released in just two years.Today, major productions often take between five and eight years to complete. Even with such long development times, it’s not uncommon for them to hit the market with technical issues and bugs, requiring months of updates and fixes. Nevertheless, studios and publishers prefer to announce their projects as early as possible, even knowing it might take half a decade—or longer—to finish them.Most developers announce their upcoming games years in advance. There are several reasons for this strategy, ranging from attracting investors to strengthening the brand and maintaining public interest. The result, however, is that some projects go years with virtually no news, fueling fan anxiety and curiosity.And those are precisely the games we’ll be discussing in this article. We’ve rounded up ten titles that were announced long before their release. Some remain in development, others still lack a release date, and in some cases, players haven't even seen a gameplay trailer yet. And if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.Beyond Good & Evil 2As far as we know, Beyond Good & Evil 2 is set to be a prequel to the 2003 game, placing the player in a vast sci-fi universe where they can create their own character, explore planets, and travel through space in an open world far more ambitious than the original. The sequel was first announced in 2008—featuring a trailer where a girl and an anthropomorphic monkey steal something from a pig-like mobster—reappeared at E3 in 2013, and then vanished.Since 2017, there have been only problems and difficulties, including the departure of the franchise creator, Michel Ancel, in 2020, changes in creative leadership, the death of creative director Émile Morel in 2023, and several internal restructurings at Ubisoft. And, despite all this, the company continues to say that the project hasn’t been canceled.In 2025 and 2026, new signs of life emerged: Ubisoft opened specific positions for the Beyond Good & Evil 2 team, while creative director Fawzi Mesmar assured that the project wasn’t affected by other company problems. In June 2026, Loïc Gounon, from Ubisoft Montpellier, confirmed once again that the team's core group continues working on the title, although there’s still no projected release date or plan to show anything further, such as gameplay videos.Elder Scrolls 6The Elder Scrolls VI first appeared at E3 2018 with a brief teaser showing Cyrodiil, but Bethesda made it clear from the start that the game would only enter full production after the release of Starfield. And since then—nothing. There have been many TES Online expansions, the TES IV remake, and likely the release of yet another version of Skyrim. But TES 6? Nothing.What we know is that the game will be the follow-up to TES V: Skyrim and is using the new Creation Engine 3, developed specifically for the project. However, to date, Bethesda hasn’t revealed the story or the official setting, nor has it shown any gameplay. We’ve only seen Cyrodiil—and nothing else.Following the 2023 launch of Starfield, development shifted into active production, and the majority of Bethesda Game Studios is currently dedicated to the project. Todd Howard acknowledged recently that the announcement was made a long time ago and stated that the team is aware of the responsibility to create a worthy successor to Skyrim, preferring to reveal new information only when they consider the game ready to be shown.Despite statements from Xbox executives that the project "looks incredible" and is progressing well, The Elder Scrolls VI still has no release date and remains one of the most well-known examples of a major game announced too early.Marvel's BladeDuring the era when Marvel was a massive cinematic success—with two or three films premiering each year—Marvel's Blade was announced at The Game Awards 2023 as a project by Arkane Lyon in partnership with Bethesda and Marvel, featuring Eric Brooks (the classic Blade) as the protagonist and Paris as the central setting.What’s been confirmed so far is that it’ll be a single-player, third-person action-adventure game; the story revealed to date involves a vampire crisis in Paris, with Blade grappling with his half-human, half-vampire nature while attempting to contain the threat.In July 2025, reports indicated that a major Arkane project had only entered production in late 2024 and was set to be a massive undertaking. While the specific project wasn't named, there’s a strong likelihood that it’s Blade. Rumors surfaced in June 2026 suggesting Microsoft might sell Arkane and cancel the project, but this was never confirmed; according to a staff member, the project is still moving forward.Shortly thereafter, Todd Howard stated that he had seen the team's recent work and that development was progressing well, though no date has been announced for showing the game again. To date, there’s been no official release date, nor has anything else been revealed to players regarding Marvel's "Daywalker."Mass Effect 5Another reveal during The Game Awards 2020 was a new title in the Mass Effect series. The announcement promised Shepard's return to the helm of the Normandy, a mysterious Geth-shaped crater, and a possible appearance by Liara T'Soni as she searches for clues regarding where our captain might’ve ended up.Details about the story remain largely under wraps, though the studio has confirmed it’ll be a strictly single-player RPG developed by veterans of the original trilogy. Initial fan excitement following the announcement may’ve waned, given that the release date remains uncertain. Three "N7 Days" have passed, yet fans still have no clue when to expect the new Mass Effect game, and there’s been only a brief teaser back in 2023.With the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard now a reality, the focus will likely shift to the new Mass Effect title; players can therefore expect to learn more about the game's progress soon.The Witcher RemakeWhile The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a true work of art and a masterclass in game and DLC design, earlier titles—such as the first game in the series—are practically unplayable today. The stance-switching mechanic is extremely dated, the graphics look quite odd, and the difficulty borders on unfair. Not just challenging—truly unfair. With this in mind, a remake of the first Witcher game has been announced.The remake of the original The Witcher was announced in 2022 and is being developed by Fool's Theory—a studio formed by CD Projekt RED veterans—under the direct supervision of the original creators. CD Projekt has confirmed that the remake won’t be released before The Witcher 4, meaning there’s currently no release date for either the fourth game or the remake.The developers revealed that the project has faced unexpected challenges, primarily due to a lack of preserved technical documentation from the original game, forcing the team to rebuild much of it virtually from scratch. Despite this, development remains active with no indication of cancellation, though there’s still no gameplay footage, no confirmed platforms, and no projected release date.Yandere SimulatorThis is a game that has been in development for so long that we no longer know if a final version will ever be released. It’s impossible to tell whether it was announced too early or if it has simply become a sort of internet "urban legend", like others mentioned below. The fact is that Yandere Simulator was announced in 2014, and development on the project began and never stopped.In the game, you control a female student obsessed with an older boy at school, and you go to great lengths to win him over—literally anything, including making rivals and other students disappear, sometimes even lethally. The goal is to eliminate the competition without being seen by other students.The game has faced various issues and changes over the years, including accusations that the developer is dragging out the project—making it increasingly massive and pushing the completion date further away—because he has become comfortable with the income from Patreon and other crowdfunding sites. Currently, the game is available to download and play for free on the official website.Trajes FataisTrajes Fatais (which became TRAF, gained the subtitle "Suits of Fate", and added a host of other features) is another game announced in the early 2010s that generated significant hype among fighting game fans for several reasons: it was a sprite-based 2D fighter featuring fast-paced gameplay and special moves in the classic Street Fighter II style—arriving at a time when players were weary of 3D-style games (as many franchises like Fatal Fury, Street Fighter, and King of Fighters were releasing 3D titles)—and it featured the character Lourenço, a cangaceiro who’d shout lines like "Olha a Pexera" ("Watch the cleaver!") when attacking.The game centers on a costume party that, for some reason, attracted the attention of powerful entities; these beings transformed the guests into their costumes and forced them to fight. In addition to the guests, the game features dark versions of the characters that manifested and became fighters.A lot has happened since then, and whenever the subject comes up, there’s something new—such as characters based on Brazilian pop culture: the samba-dancing succubus, the cangaceiro, the "Bate-bola" (a Rio de Janeiro Carnival tradition), the gaúcho, the frevo dancer, the Indigenous woman, and the Saci.Development was also marked by issues and rumors regarding crowdfunding, the project creator's ego, and the departure of some developers, who went on to found their own studio and release the fighting game Pocket Bravery.171Dubbed the "Brazilian GTA", 171 is another title announced back in the early 2010s; developed by Betagames Group, it’s set in a city inspired by locations reminiscent of São Paulo—featuring houses with metal gates, street traffic, people shouting when bumped into, and all the elements that make the state's outskirts so unique and recognizable. According to official details, the game will feature an open-world setting where players follow a police officer who goes undercover in the criminal underworld because of his brother.In 2022, the game's Early Access version faced criticism and controversy regarding its crowdfunding and the use of purchased, off-the-shelf assets to build parts of the map and other systems. In response, the developers stated that using commercial assets is common industry practice, arguing that it makes more sense to focus efforts on game development rather than creating, for instance, a unique tree asset from scratch.The full version, initially scheduled for 2024, was delayed to 2025 and subsequently to 2026. According to the studio, the delays stemmed from a major company restructuring process affecting legal, financial, administrative, and operational areas, in addition to technical development itself. As of now, 171 remains in Early Access, with no definitive release date for version 1.0.BioShock 4Announced in 2019, the fourth game in the BioShock franchise stands out from the other titles on the list for a specific reason. While all the other games we’ve discussed and shown here have at least some kind of trailer—whether cinematic or gameplay-focused—the next BioShock has none of that.Even now, five years after the announcement that the title was in development, what players know about the new BioShock boils down to its mere existence. At the time of the announcement, publisher 2K clarified on Twitter that the game would take several years to develop, thereby managing the expectations of those awaiting news in the short term."The decision not to provide any updates on development progress over the past five years will certainly generate concern among fans of the series." There are also interviews from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick on the matter.The company also announced that the new BioShock would be developed by the studio Cloud Chamber, featuring the participation of several key professionals on the project. Even so, the decision not to share updates on development progress over the past five years is certainly a cause for concern among fans of the franchise.Star Wars: Knights of the Old RepublicThe Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake was announced in 2021 to recreate one of the most acclaimed RPGs in history, but it has virtually disappeared from the spotlight since its reveal trailer. The aim is to completely modernize the 2003 classic, preserving its story and characters while updating graphics and mechanics to current standards.Development went through a turbulent phase in 2022, when Bloomberg revealed that the project had been paused following internal changes at Aspyr. Responsibility was subsequently transferred to Saber Interactive, which took over the remake.Since then, almost no official information has been released. In March 2026, Tim Willits, Saber Interactive's Chief Creative Officer, confirmed in an interview with IGN that the game "is still in development" but stated that he couldn’t reveal further details. To date, there’s no gameplay, release window, or new public presentation.
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