I dont have an example because I’m tired, or else my brains were eaten by a zombie tonight, but will have a good suggestion tomorrow. Don’t stick to corporatized baloney press feeds, tell us why your precious game was taken out and shot, and your tinfoil hat idea or dry reasoning of why.
City of Heroes. Because being profitable without raking in gobs of cash just isn’t enough, apparently.
Freespace 2, because fucking God damned consoles.
Star Chamber, a game I never played and won’t ever, a fact I can’t stop being sad about after reading that TvB.
As for the reason: a few years ahead of its time, it seems?
But you can play Star Chamber designer’s boardgame Clank (and now there is that space version)!
I’m just going to be a generalist here and say, Electronic Arts.
Warhammer Online. The game was based around massive PvP battles, but the engine could only handle a fraction of the load. It chugged to a halt, and it took the game with it.
I miss playing my squig herder!
Warhammer Online is my introduction to PVP, and where I staretd to enjoy it - such a great game. I really miss that as well.
edited
Tilted Mills - Medieval Mayor. I imagine they couldn’t get a publisher because publishers don’t seem to think these niche games make it.
Majesty 2 - they didn’t understand the full appeal of Majesty 1 so I think the franchise nose bombed with the last game.
Sim City - they focused so much on the forced online component they didn’t focus on the Sim with Sim City.
One for me was Front Page Sports Football. I loved that game in the 90s. They tried to make the jump to a 3d game in the late 90s, and failed so miserably it had to be pulled off the shelf at stores. Sierra killed the franchise at that point, and killed off Dynamix not long after that.
I still wake up some nights crying out in sorrow over never getting to play Guardians: Agents of Justice! I played it at E3 and wish I had played more, till they dragged me away…
Homeworld Remastered
The last patch added some awesome features, but introduced its own bugs. The game is abandoned by now.
I think Gearbox’s Battleborn tanked so hard it took out HWRM along with it.
The tie fighter / x-wing series. The elegance of simple flight models, shield and energy distribution on the fly and the meaningful gameplay one could derive from that with some smart mission building. So good. And starwars.
And Bridge Commander. As a swansong, the designer of the above (Lawrence Holland) games built a star trek game using much of the mechanics from those. Except not a nimble fighter but a startrek capital ship. It was actually really fucking good and got lost in time. A crying shame.
Oh oh, and heres another two:
Strike Fighters, a mid-core flight sim by thirdwire. Those games rocked; great feel of flight, good graphics for their time and quite importantly almost no ‘switchology’. Just flyin and shootin. Good AI too iirc. Thirdwire now only makes mobile games :( Strike fighters 3 would be such a great thing for VR.
Janes’ Fighters Anthology. In the 90 EA janes did a series starting with US navy fighters that culminated in an anthology that like a 150 flyables. The gameplay was very much on the arcade side of things, but detailed enough to really make a difference between different planes. I miss it sorely. Where else can we try if a B2 or a AC-130U is more effective at laying waste to an airfield? Or how good a weaponised X-29 would do against a soviet surface action group? This needs reviving. modern graphics, VR. Perhaps by thirdwire? :D
Amen.
That Which Sleeps because the developer panicked when he realized he bit off more than he could chew, and rather than scale back just shut down.
Dark Age of Camelot is still chugging along.
Strike Fighters (for PC) comes to mind. Really good/fun flight sim that got discontinued in the PC because the author realized he could get a lot more money making mobile apps with a fraction of the vitriol. :(
Independence War series
Freespace series
Wing Commander Series, including the best entry, Privateer.
X-wing Series
All died because mouse and keyboard became the only way to have hit games on the PC. Joystick games became the kiss of death at the box office, and all died off.
Luckily, console games and the omni-presence of the 360 controller for PC has brought another peripheral into our lives that is very popular. So joystick games may live again. Arise like a phoenix space sims! Come on!