Every Canceled Game From The Game Awards

This week, it was reported that NetEase would be pulling the funding from Nagoshi Studio’s Gang of Dragon, after the studio requested additional funding for the game. As a result, the title is unlikely to be released, despite it being one of the biggest announcements at The Game Awards showcase just three months ago.

This got me thinking about The Game Awards, the trailers shown there, and how often modern video games are either canceled, or only available for a brief amount of time before they are unceremoniously yanked from storefronts.

Each year since 2014, though, Geoff Keighley has hosted The Game Awards without fail. And every year, the actual awards receive less of the limelight in favor of shoving more trailers in front of the audience. Because of this shifting of priorities, I’ve decided to rewatch every The Game Awards show from the past decade to see how many titles shown are not playable in the year 2026.

While I don’t have any shocking numbers such as “10% of games don’t ever hit stores”, there is still value in confirming just how many high-profile games have been canceled in the past few years, and how early in development these sneak peeks actually are.

To maintain consistency, this article will only cover the first instance of a game’s appearance in a year’s The Game Awards, with additional appearances within the same showcase not being counted. Moreover, this piece will only examine actual video game trailers, and not include those for films, consoles, or platforms like Game Pass.

The Game Awards 2016

The Game Awards’ 2016 show is very humble by current standards. It was still very corporate with elements like the Schick Hydrobot showing up, but in terms of trailers interrupting the award show, there were only 18.

Out of those 18 trailers, every single game shown was either released or already released before the show. Most of the live service games shown are still active too, as games that were popular in 2016, such as PUBG, are still popular today.

However, there are still two examples of games shown during this show that can no longer be played. The first of those two games was Dauntless, which released in 2018 and eventually got shut down in 2025 after a seven-year run.

The other game, however, was not so lucky. LawBreakers was an FPS released in August 2017 that was shut down in September 2018, barely a year after release. This tragic example of a game barely getting to live before never being playable again is only a sign of things to come.

The Game Awards 2017

The Game Awards 2017 increased the number of trailers shown from 18 to 28. However, yet again, most of the games shown this year were either already out or released within a few years, with only one major exception.

In the Valley of Gods, a game from Firewatch studio Campo Santo, was revealed at this event with a release date of 2019. This release would never come, as in 2018, Valve would purchase Campo Santo.

In a statement to Polygon in 2019, studio co-founder Jake Rodkin would state that development of the game was put on hold as the development team was assigned to work on projects like Half Life: Alyx and Dota Underlords.

To this day, In the Valley of Gods has been put “on hold” with the Steam page being updated to a release date of 2029 several years ago. However, with nothing but radio silence on the game since, it’s hard not to consider this anything but the first game to be canceled after a reveal at The Game Awards.

The Game Awards 2018

The 2018 Game Awards may not have shown any games that were canceled before release, but plenty of the live-service games shown this year have since been shut down by their publishers. Of the 32 games shown this year, three of them are no longer playable in any form.

The first of these games was, of course, Dauntless, which I already highlighted earlier in this article, so we shall brush by it for now and instead speak about Midwinter Entertainment’s multiplayer shooter Scavengers. This title would launch in May 2021, three years after its appearance at The Game Awards. It would later shut down in December 2022, barely a year after launch. With live-service games, it feels like there’s no in-between from either being shut down quickly or being the biggest game ever.

The highest profile life-service game from this showcase, which you can no longer play even if you wanted to, is easily BioWare’s Anthem.

BioWare’s Anthem launched in 2019 and sold over 5 million units during its lifespan. By almost all metrics, this game was a success. Development of the game stopped in 2021, but the servers would be allowed to remain intact for several years after. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last forever as the servers would be taken down in January 2026.

While Anthem wasn’t the most critically acclaimed game in the world on launch, it did have a healthy fanbase of players who enjoyed it. Why should the game vanish forever? At least other publishers mentioned in this article, like Midwinter Entertainment, are small, so their being unable to maintain their games is understandable on some level. But why can’t a multi-billion-dollar company, EA, afford to keep a few servers up? 

The Game Awards 2019

The 2019 Game Awards did not go as well as the previous year. Of the 32 game trailers, six of them either never released, got officially canceled, or have long had their servers shut down.

By far the most infamous reveal of the 2019 showcase was The Wolf Among Us 2. The trailer and narrative around this game were all about how the production was miraculously saved from the closure of Telltale Games, but now we are nearly seven years out from this reveal, and circumstances have changed.

This revival of The Wolf Among Us 2 was initially being developed with the assistance of AdHoc Studio until 2023. In 2023, not only did this partnership with AdHoc end, but Telltale would lay off, as described by artist Jonah Huang, “Most of the team.”

While The Wolf Among Us 2 is not officially canceled, not many are expecting news about this game, which doesn’t appear to have anyone working on it to be released anytime soon. AdHoc would later go on to release Dispatch in 2025, giving fans of the episodic narrative style expected of Telltale games the experience they had craved for years.

Now, as for games that were shown this year and have been officially canceled, Magic: The Gathering fans got their first look at the isometric action-RPG Magic: Legends during this event.

While Magic: Legends would launch in Early Access in March of 2021, it would later be shut down less than a year later in October of 2021. While I may not know anything about Magic: The Gathering to make claims on whether this was a good game or not, it still feels ridiculous for a game to last less than a year before being deleted from existence.

This year’s showcase had four different live service titles, which have since had their servers either shut down or will shut down very soon. The first of these was Nine to Five, a 3v3v3 shooter from Redhill Games. This title would launch in May 2022 and not last even a single year, as the servers were closed in January 2023.

Now this year’s showcase has a very interesting example of two games that were developed with the idea of players playing them online with others, but had their servers shut down, but technically have offline modes. These are Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance and Godfall. 

This type of multiplayer co-operative game, which can technically be played offline, reminds me a lot of trying to play White Knight Chronicles by myself in the early 2010s. While it’s certainly possible, the actual experience of doing so will be met with mixed reception.

Looking through the individual subreddits of both Godfall and Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, it seems that both communities are mixed on whether either game is actually worth playing these days. Although it is worth noting that while I could find plenty of Godfall players insisting the single player still has merit, I found significantly fewer Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance players saying the same thing. It seems that whether it be the real or video game version, DnD is best played with friends.

If I were writing this article only two months ago, I would be able to move on to the next year now; however, in January 2026, it was announced that the MMORPG New World from Amazon Games would be shutting down in January 2027. Considering that Amazon was willing to not only pay for a trailer at The Game Awards but also an episode of the show Secret Level based on the game, they clearly wanted this to be a success. However, it was clearly not meant to be.

The Game Awards 2020

Watching the 2020 The Game Awards showcase in 2026 was a surreal experience. Despite the show being held remotely because of Covid restrictions, very little about the actual showcase was different, other than people being in different rooms. I suppose when you have to spend a large portion of your show must be spent showing 31 different game trailers, it doesn’t matter if you’re actually around other people.

We’ll start off this recap of games that were shown at the 2020 Game Awards, which you can’t play, by talking about a game that doesn’t technically have a name, received only a single trailer, but is technically not canceled.

I am, of course, referring to the game which closed out the show: the new Mass Effect. Despite being one of the biggest reveals during the show, we have learned absolutely nothing about the game in the years since. 

We are five years and counting since the reveal of the new Mass Effect, with only a single additional teaser trailer a few pieces of concept art having been shown since. With no true gameplay having been shown in half a decade, fans are worried to say the least.

Perhaps not mentioning a game ever again is a less bitter fate than having a game receive multiple trailers, including gameplay trailers, have the entire world in anticipation, and then cancel the game. I am, of course, referring to the disastrous situation around Perfect Dark, which was first announced at the 2020 The Game Awards.

This title, which was being developed by The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics and published by Microsoft, would receive several trailers at similar showcases but would sadly be canceled in July 2025. In addition to this, many employees at Microsoft would be laid off. This was one of the most high-profile game cancellations in recent years, and there is no justifying it from any perspective but a greedy financial one.

A lesser-known cancellation from the 2020 The Game Awards came from Square Enix, as they released a trailer for Just Cause Mobile, a game that never came out. The mobile game industry is in just as bad a state as the console and PC market, with Square Enix in particular becoming infamous for shutting down mobile games a short time after launch.

While it isn’t a surprise that Just Cause Mobile didn’t actually launch, it has become almost impossible to trust Square Enix’s mobile division in recent years. I personally don’t expect their new Dissidia to last long.

There was one other game at the 2020 The Game Awards, which would have its servers shut down fast, a competitive heist game called Hood: Outlaws and Legends from the developers Sumo Newcastle. This title would launch in May 2021 and, sadly, would sunset its servers in 2025. 

It is incredibly sad to see any game, even one you never tried before, be removed from storefronts, but after listing this many games, I’m just glad that this one lasted more than a few months.

The Game Awards 2021

The 2021 Game Awards might be one of the worst showcase events in gaming history. From tone-deaf moments like Geoff giving a very brief acknowledgement to the harsh working conditions in the game industry before platforming a Quantic Dream game, to events I cannot describe in a more professional term than cringe, such as Geoff saying he loves new IPs moments before revealing Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

This was also the first year that the sheer amount of trailers shown during the event began to be unbearable. There were 47 trailers shown during this showcase, with the pre-show alone showcasing 14 games nearly back to back. How many of those 47 games aren’t playable these days? Once again, we’ll need to break that into categories.

Starting off with games that were shown and then vanished into thin air, we have Star Wars: Eclipse. Despite making a complete Geoff mockery of himself by platforming the David Cage-directed game for this showcase, this game has yet to receive a second trailer in the four years since the reveal. The only official acknowledgement of this game in the years since was by Lucasfilm’s vice president in 2023, where he briefly stated that the game is still in development.

The other game that vanished after this showcase was Pearl Abyss’ DokeV. This game’s vanishing is odder than most, as it had actually been revealed a long time before The Game Awards and had several trailers shown, but after the music video, it received here the company went silent on the game. 

It is currently believed that DokeV’s development has been put on hold as Pearl Abyss has needed all hands on deck with Crimson Desert’s ever-growing development cycle. However, with us now being nearly five years out from the last trailer, it feels unlikely that we will ever see anything DokeV again.

Like the previous year’s show, The Game Awards 2021 also revealed a high-profile game starring a female protagonist that was canceled in 2025, as this year, we got our first glimpse of Monolith Productions’ Wonder Woman. That was also the final look we got at the game, as we never saw another trailer before finally getting the news in 2025 that this title was unfairly canceled.

Wonder Woman is by far the most recognizable female superhero in existence, and yet she has yet to receive her own solo game in the nearly five decades that the gaming industry has existed. Because of that, this cancelation hurts more than others.

Now, as for games that were shown this year but had their servers shut down, there are actually several. The first of which is Babylon’s Fall from Square Enix and Platinum Games.

This title was Platinum Games’ first fully live-service title, and it launched in March 2022. Gamers wouldn’t have much time to play it, though, as Square would permanently close down the game’s servers less than a year later in 2023.

Another title shown at The Game Awards this year was Rumbleverse from Iron Galaxy and Epic Games. This title’s lifespan was even shorter than Babylon’s Fall, as it launched in August 2022 and closed down in February 2023, lasting less than six months.

Despite all odds, there was yet another live service game shown at The Game Awards this year, which shut down in barely a year. Crossfire X would launch in February of 2022 and then have its servers closed in May 2023.

If I were writing this list earlier in the year, perhaps that would be the last game from The Game Awards 2021 I would say has shut down, but there is, in fact, one more. Vampire: the Masquerade BloodHunt. This live-service spinoff of Vampire: The Masquerade launched in April 2022 and will permanently shut down next month in April 2026.

Aside from the games listed above, there is only one other title from this year’s The Game Awards that hasn’t come out yet, but unlike the others, it isn’t canceled. After years and years of development, Pearl Abyss will finally be releasing Crimson Desert near the end of March 2026.

The Game Awards 2022

Because video games take longer to make than ever, the 2022 The Game Awards showcase is the first where there were games shown that, while not canceled, are still not out and have no firm release year. I think it would be unfair for me to talk about these games the same way I mention titles that vanished for a decade, like The Wolf Among Us 2, but I feel I should at least make a brief mention of them.

Despite that explanation, I only need to talk about one game from The Game Awards 2022’s 47 trailers whose release date is currently in limbo: Judas. This FPS, directed by Bioshock alumni Ken Levine, was revealed at The Game Awards and initially had an expected release year of 2025. Needless to say, it missed that window and currently has no scheduled release.

However, unlike other titles in this list, it doesn’t seem like this game has vanished entirely, as just last month, Game Informer put out a preview piece for the game. While it doesn’t appear to be coming out soon, this game does at least appear to still exist.

The other game shown this year, but still hasn’t been released, is Sad Cat Studios’ Replaced. This cyberpunk platformer was actually first revealed at E3 2021 and was slated to release in 2022, however it has been faced with constant delays as it is the first full console title developed by this small team, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine required the team to relocate to Cyprus. 

Despite all the hardship the team has undergone, though, this game will be released soon on April 14, 2026, and I hope things go well for them after all this time.

Now, while those two games will be coming out soon, there were two titles revealed this year that were both canceled in 2025. The first of which was a new title from the indie team that brought the world Celeste: Extremely OK Games’ Earthblade.

The reason for Earthblade’s cancellation apparently resulted from internal conflict within the team, as detailed in a blog post by Madeline Thorson.

The biggest game shown during this year’s Game Awards that was later canceled was Transformers Reactivate. After a trailer that was meant to make people take guesses about what this game would even be, the developers went radio silent until the announcement that it was canceled finally hit in 2025.

2025 in particular was a dreadful year for learning that games were being canceled and dev teams being dissolved. It truly feels like funding in all corners of the industry is being drained, and thousands of talented developers are being laid off for no reason.

Now, as for live service games shown during this year’s event, there is one. Bandai Namco’s MMORPG Blue Protocol. This is an odd case where the game launched in June 2023 and shut down in January 2025, but would later be remade and resurrected in the same year as Blue Protocol: Star Resonance in October 2025.

This is similar to a move Square Enix pulled more than a decade ago with Final Fantasy XIV, which shut down in November 2012 and relaunched in August 2013 as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. My question is, does this count? Is Blue Protocol actually a game shown at The Game Awards and then shut down?

Would one consider Final Fantasy XIV, which performed similarly at launch, to be a game you can no longer play? If yes, then Blue Protocol does deserve to be mentioned in this article. If not, then I have wasted too much time on this. I’ll leave that decision up to the reader.

The Game Awards 2023

Somehow, against all odds, the 2023 Game Awards is the only showcase in this list that hasn’t had any games shown during it be canceled or shut down. However, out of the 51 distinct trailers that played during this show, 17 of them have yet to be released.

When around 30% of the games in your showcase do not have a firm release year several years later, it paints a bleak picture of an industry that values talking about projects the moment their development begins. Combined with how more and more developers lose their jobs each month, it’s getting harder and harder to expect that any game which is five years away will actually be released.

Now I won’t waste your time detailing each of the 17 games shown during this show that haven’t yet been released, but I will list them below. Separating them into three categories.

1. Games whose release dates are currently in limbo, either because we haven’t heard of them or because they keep getting delayed
2. Games that are currently slated to be released in 2026
3. Games that will allegedly be released in 2027

2023 Game Awards Games Without a Release Date

Game	Developer	Publisher
Pony Island 2: Panda Circus	Daniel Mullins Games	Daniel Mullins Games
Usual June	Finji	Finji
Harmonium the Musical	The Odd Gentlemen	Netflix
Kemuri	UNSEEN	???
Jet Set Radio	Sega	Sega
Streets of Rage: Revolution	???	Sega
Golden Axe	???	Sega
Crazy Taxi	Sega	Sega
OD	Kojima Productions	Xbox Game Studios
Jurassic Park: Survival	Saber	Universal Entertainment
Blade	Arkane Studios	Bethesda Softworks
Last Sentinel	Lightspeed LA	Level Infinite
Den of Wolves	10 Chambers	10 Chambers
Exoborne	Sharkmob AB	Sharkmob AB
No Rest for the Wicked	Moon Studios	Moon Studios

2023 The Game Awards Games Releasing in 2026

Game	Developer	Publisher
Windblown	Motion Twin	Motion Twin, Kepler Ghost
Big Walk	House House	Panic Inc

2023 The Game Awards Games Releasing in 2027

Game	Developer	Publisher
Exodus	Archetype Entertainment	Wizard of the Coast

The Game Awards 2024

The 2024 Game Awards is when the public truly began to lose patience with this type of event, with moments like the “Please wrap it up” sign going viral, as it seems that those in charge of the event have stopped pretending to care about developers entirely; all that matters is the marketing. Combine that with reports of how much money it costs to have a trailer play at this show, and it’s understandable why the public has turned against Geoff Keighley’s showcases.

2024 was also the year when Generative AI, which I believe to be a true evil of humanity, began to develop and be implemented into gaming. It did not take long for this technology and its consequences to bleed into the gaming space, including The Game Awards.

In the previous year’s 2023 showcase, The Game Awards aired a trailer for the game No Rest for the Wicked. While there was no reason to believe this game used AI at the time, during an interview in 2026, director Thomas Mahler confirmed that AI was used during the development of the game.

Because this happened years after the game’s reveal at The Game Awards, I will not hold this against the showcase or accuse them of platforming AI for it. 2024, however, would lead to an actual controversy as a trailer that appeared to be made with generative AI aired during the showcase.

Midway through the showcase, a trailer for SuperAuthenti’s Catly aired. This trailer showed no gameplay and was just cute cats on screen until the logo appeared. Immediately, the internet began to dissect this trailer as something didn’t feel right, accusing the developers of using AI to create it. 

Throughout the rest of December, the developers would deny various allegations ranging from AI use to NFT integration into the game, as detailed by this Eurogamer report. However, even with this denial, the internet as a whole made judgments, and the game has a reputation of being made with AI now.

At the time of writing this, Catly’s developers still deny the use of AI or Web3 material in their game, with the Steam page for Catly currently not including an AI disclaimer. However, the developers have remained silent about the game following these controversies, with the last post about it on their social media account being in December 2024. 

Whether or not Catly was an AI game that got caught in the crossfire of people’s AI fears or was simply a CG trailer for a game that vanished like so many others is something only time will tell. 

2024 The Game Awards Games Without a Release Date

Game	Developer	Publisher
One Move Away	Ramage Games	Playstack
Kyora	Pugstorm	Chucklefish
Witcher 4	CD Projekt Red	CD Projekt
Catly	SuperAuthenti	SuperAuthenti
Project Robot	GenDESIGN	Epic Games
Virtua Fighter	RGG Studios	Sega
Stranger Than Heaven	RGG Studios	Sega
Turok Origins	Saber Interactive	Saber Interactive
Dungeon & FIghter: ARAD	Nexon Games	Nexon
Stage Fright	Ghost Town Games	Hello Games
Den of Wolves	10 Chambers	10 Chambers
Okami sequel	CLOVERS inc	Capcom

Now, as I write this, I realize it might be unfair to put a game like Stranger Than Heaven, which has received numerous trailers now, in the same category as Project Robot, a game that doesn’t even have a name. However, I am trying to be fair, as we no longer live in a world where a game receiving multiple trailers means it will be released. After all, it was only three years ago that Sega canceled Hyenas before release.

Now, as for games which currently have firm release years, there are three games from this showcase which have yet to be released but are slated to come out in 2026

2024 The Game Awards Games Releasing in 2026

Game	Developer	Publisher
Blackfrost: The Long Dark II	Hitherland Studios	Hitherland Studios
Onimusha: Way of the Sword	Capcom	Capcom

Despite only being two years out from this showcase, there were two live service titles shown here, which have now shut down, as it feels like games last for less and less time these days.

The first of these games is Wargaming Group Limited’s Steel Hunters. This multiplayer PvPvE shooter launched in April 2025 and would later sunset forever in July of the same year.

Steel Hunters is an interesting case as the game technically never left its beta phase, with the version that gamers got to try before it vanished being an Early Access release for the public. Sadly, those six months of open beta were not enough for the game to become successful and stay around.

The other live service title shown this year, which quickly shut down, was Splitgate 2. This game would face its fair share of controversies after the lead director, Ian Proulx, wore an offensive and tone-deaf hat that permanently sank the game’s reputation online. While the title launched in June 2025, it would later be unreleased a month later in July.

The game would later again be relaunched in December 2025, and it would be given the new name of Spitgate: Arena Reloaded. This is another example of a gray area where a game was both shut down and technically not shut down. Regardless of the rebrand, though, that controversy should and will haunt the Splitgate brand forever.

The Game Awards 2025

I do not feel a need to recap the 2025 The Game Awards showcase in the same way as I went over the previous year’s. At the time of writing this, this showcase aired only three months ago. Saying that 90% of games do not release three months after they’re revealed is not a shocking or useful metric.

However, despite the short amount of time between this showcase airing and today, there are still two games worth talking about for the purpose of this article. I already highlighted in the intro of this article how Gang of Dragon had its funding pulled and thus will likely never release, but it wasn’t the only high-profile cancellation at The Game Awards this year.

The game that closed out The Game Awards 2025 was Wildlight Entertainment’s Highguard. This Hero Shooter launched on January 26, 2026, and will be shut down this week on March 12, 2026. This game, which spent four years in development, lasted a mere 45 days before shutting down forever.

While this isn’t the shortest lifespan for a hero shooter, as it lasted longer than Sony’s Concord, we should not live in a society where art that took years to make can just be taken away forever in less than two months. 

The failure of not just Highguard, but the many other games that either vanish or barely launch, should forever stain the reputation of Geoff Keighley’s showcase. It has long proven to be a failure of an award show, as each year the time actually spent on awards is lessened in order to focus on more ads, but how can it even be considered a good ad showcase if 33% of the titles shown each year will miss the current console generation and a handful of them might not even release at all!

How can we be expected to just shut up and watch trailers for alleged games when funding in all corners of the industry is drying up, and thousands are losing their jobs? Why trust that I’m looking at a real video game when it’s a CG trailer for something whose development only just got approved and is being played next to games that use generative AI like No Rest for the Wicked?

I no longer trust trailers shown at The Game Awards. Perhaps I am late to that, as many other people are claiming to have not trusted them for years, but 2026 was truly my breaking point for this showcase, and I suspect that I will not be alone in this. To close this article off I shall simply provide a table of stats showing have many trailers were at each The Game Awards showcase from the last decade and how many of those games are currently not playable.

Year	Number of Trailers	Amount Not Playable
2016	18	2
2017	28	1
2018	32	3
2019	32	6
2020	31	4
2021	47	7
2022	47	5
2023	51	17
2024	48	16
2025	50	2 Canceled