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00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at 10 Xbox games that unfortunately
00:17got axed mid-development.
00:28Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo
00:32Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:37Scalebound
00:47This was a rather unique moment for both Platinum Games and Xbox, as the two were prepared
00:52to show the power of the Xbox One with this title.
00:56Scalebound had been in development for a long, long time, going all the way back to 2006
01:01when Platinum Games first opened its doors.
01:04It wasn't until 2013, when development truly started, planned to be an action RPG with
01:10four-player co-op support.
01:19Despite some positive reception to what little gameplay was shown, the project fell apart.
01:24Since Scalebound's cancellation in 2019, various heads from Platinum have revealed
01:28that the team was not prepared to tackle an online-focused game like this, studio head
01:32Atsushi Inaba stating that Scalebound, quote, didn't do all the things that we needed
01:37to do as a developer, end quote, and that, quote, both sides failed, end quote.
01:42As a result, Scalebound is now dead in the water as the deal between Platinum Games and
01:47Xbox meant that Microsoft would own the Scalebound IP.
01:51Platinum staff have made their desire to return to the project publicly, but Xbox has
01:55not said anything on the matter.
02:05Banjo-X
02:09Long have fans of The Bear and The Bird been wanting a tried and true third game, well
02:14we were only inches into that dream becoming a reality.
02:17After the release of Conker Live and Reloaded, Rare decided to try and remake Banjo-Kazooie
02:22just as they did with Conker's Bad Fur Day.
02:25Alas, the project did not get far.
02:27Some artwork was made, Mumbo Jumbo got a 3D model, and there was supposedly a functioning
02:32four-player co-op mode.
02:34There was even talks about how to make Gruntilda compete against the player as they both try
02:38to accomplish the same tasks.
02:47Two problems cropped up from this.
02:49One, the folks at Rare deemed the AI needed would be too difficult for the Xbox to handle,
02:54and two, development was starting in 2004 and the Xbox 360 was launching very, very
03:01soon in 2005.
03:03Rare would move on to a kart racer starring Banjo and company instead, known as Banjo-Kazooie,
03:09which allowed players to swap vehicle parts to build their dream vehicle.
03:12However, it only got as far as the prototyping phase, and everything from both that and Banjo-X
03:18would eventually be recycled into nuts and bolts, but it wouldn't be the last attempt
03:22at an Xbox kart racer.
03:29The Fast and the Furriest.
03:41Rare did have plans for a multiplayer game that would reunite Banjo and Conker.
03:45The Fast and the Furriest was originally planned to be a party game where players competed
03:50in a variety of minigames starring various rare characters.
03:54However, the game changed at some point into a kart racer.
03:58Serving as a spiritual successor to Diddy Kong Racing, players could race as Banjo,
04:02Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark, Sabrewolf from Killer Instinct, Rash from Battletoads, and
04:07many others across a wealth of tracks.
04:11Conker was noticeably not going to be involved this time.
04:18Ideas included building your own vehicles with interchangeable parts, and even using
04:22character-specific powers to destroy and build parts of the track mid-race.
04:27Trophy Thomas from Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts was also going to be a part of the game
04:31as an original character.
04:33No reason was given as to why this game was cancelled.
04:42Perfect Dark Core.
04:52Despite the rough launch of Perfect Dark Zero, we were about to get a third game in the series,
04:57and it would have been a bigger departure due to both teams of the two games already
05:01working on other prototypes.
05:03And so, Perfect Dark Core was to be developed by Chris Siever and the Conker's Bad Fur
05:09Day team.
05:13The team planned to go a much darker approach with this one, a story more serious where
05:18Joanna's mental stability would deteriorate while uncovering yet another alien conspiracy.
05:24The world was also planned to be more open with some parkour and RPG mechanics thrown
05:29into the mix.
05:30While you can find videos of animations and gameplay, the project was eventually canned.
05:36Part of this was due to the team suddenly losing a couple of members as they were sent
05:40to other projects.
05:41However, Siever points to Zero's awful sales and the explosive popularity of Halo.
05:47Here's hoping Crystal Dynamics and the initiative's Perfect Dark reboot revitalizes the IP.
05:56Fable Legends.
06:15Poor Lionhead Studios was one of the first major victims in Xbox's mismanagement problems.
06:21After a tumultuous period of trying to make Kinect games, Fable The Journey didn't exactly
06:25pan out too well.
06:27Lionhead started working on a new Fable game that would focus on online multiplayer.
06:32Set 400 years prior to the first game, Fable Legends was to be a MOBA dungeon crawler where
06:38a villain player would create quests for the hero players to take on, throwing whatever
06:43enemies, traps, and more to foil their mission.
06:52A beta was conducted before the project was unceremoniously cancelled in 2016, just months
06:58before launch.
06:59Some of Lionhead's staff showed up to the studio only to be greeted by an email and
07:04told to attend a meeting, saying that the studio was shutting down immediately by order
07:09of Microsoft.
07:10A few others were already aware of the studio's potential shuttering by this point.
07:14Today, Xbox heads say they're regretful about closing Lionhead Studios with some heads
07:19former and current taking the blame for the decision.
07:22And then, Tango Gameworks shut down early in 2024.
07:34Dead or Alive Code Chronos
07:43While it wasn't a project from an Xbox first-party studio, Koei Tecmo's Dead or Alive series
07:48has a storied history with Xbox, with Dead or Alive 3, Ultimate, DOA2 Ultimate, DOA4,
07:55Extreme Beach Volleyball, and Extreme 2 all being exclusive to Xbox and Xbox 360.
08:02Code Chronos was to be yet another installment exclusive to Xbox 360.
08:06In a 2006 interview with Play Magazine, creator Tomonobu Itagaki announced the game and revealed
08:12that it would focus on Ayane and Kasumi before the events of the first Dead or Alive.
08:17Then, things went quiet until 2010, when then-Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi announced Code Chronos
08:25was cancelled.
08:31Within these four years, Itagaki had found himself embroiled in sexual harassment allegations
08:36and was suing Koei Tecmo for missing bonuses that were supposedly promised to him during
08:41Dead or Alive 4's development.
08:43Itagaki left the company in 2008, roughly two years after Code Chronos was announced,
08:48and Dead or Alive continued without him until Dead or Alive 6 ended post-launch support
08:53in 2020.
09:02Sundown
09:03Ultimately, you'd have to find a place that you could fortify and rig with traps, because
09:07when the sun went down, these infected creatures would descend in their droves looking for
09:11their next victims.
09:12Yeah, we aren't quite done with Rare yet, there's been a lot of cancelled Rare projects.
09:17Turns out, the studio was taking a second crack at horror in 2006, the first being 2004's
09:23Grabbed by the Ghoulies.
09:25Whereas Ghoulies had that usual cartoony style Rare had become known for, Sundown was to
09:29be much more realistic and gritty.
09:32Players would survive and fight a parasite that could mutate its host into horrific monstrosities.
09:38You scavenge for supplies and bolster your defenses during the day, then fight the parasite
09:42at night.
09:50Why the project was canned, we may never know, but there is plenty of concept art and even
09:55some footage of a rough prototype to view online.
10:05Project Titan
10:14Before Halo Infinite took things to an open-world format, we were going to get a Halo game just
10:19as big in scope, or at least it seemed that way at the time.
10:25Project Titan was the codename for a new MMO set in the Halo franchise, and it was going
10:30to be developed by Ensemble Studios, the company behind the Age of Empires games.
10:36And Microsoft was dishing out the money to make this happen as they were planning to
10:40use it as a competitor to World of Warcraft.
10:43Yeah, good luck with that.
10:53Money was injected into building an entirely new branch for Ensemble.
10:57The game would have utilized a cover system, psion for special abilities, the game's
11:02mana basically, and a different art style to distinguish itself from the rest of the
11:06franchise.
11:07However, burning $90 million does not guarantee your success, and as it turned out, the new
11:14office never even started construction because Microsoft planned to close Ensemble as soon
11:20as Halo Wars was finished.
11:28Titan was quickly canceled while Halo Wars wrapped up development, and leadership within
11:33Microsoft changed.
11:34Don Mattrick was put in charge of Xbox, and he proceeded to shut down Ensemble anyways.
11:40All in the name of profitability.
12:02Last Rare game before we hit our final entry, we promise.
12:05Rare has seen a wealth of canceled projects, like I said earlier, and Conker has seen quite
12:11a few of them.
12:12Of them all, Get In Medieval had the most promise.
12:17Give or take.
12:18After launching Conker Live and Reloaded, Chris Seaver had wanted to go in the direction
12:22of online multiplayer, with a focus on death, the character, and a theme on medieval fantasy.
12:35Changes from Live and Reloaded would expectedly be changed to fit the game's aesthetic,
12:39but character art is pretty much as far as the project got.
12:42But from the way Seaver has talked about it, it sounds like Get In Medieval would have
12:46just been a standalone version of Live and Reloaded's multiplayer with a different
12:50coat of paint.
12:57Odyssey
13:06This might be one of the first canceled games Activision Blizzard has seen under Big Daddy
13:11Xbox.
13:12In 2017, Blizzard Entertainment began work on a new survival game they dubbed Odyssey,
13:18with a team of 200 people.
13:21Players would travel across various portals, gathering resources in servers of up to 100
13:26players.
13:28However, development was constantly plagued by the online limitations of Unreal Engine,
13:32causing the team to switch to Synapse, which caused further issues.
13:44And that's without mentioning the massive toxic workplace lawsuit and the Cosby Suite
13:49scandal that Blizzard found itself in in 2021.
13:52Once Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, staff had their fingers crossed that they'd
13:57be able to switch back to Unreal.
13:59Microsoft had other plans though.
14:01In January 2024, Microsoft enacted a round of layoffs across all of its sectors, including
14:07Blizzard Entertainment, which led to Odyssey getting canned.
14:10Some of the staff were simply moved to other projects, while everybody else was laid off.
14:15Hope y'all bounce back.
14:26Was there an Xbox game here you believe would have been a smash hit?
14:30Let us know down in the comments below, and be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more
14:34great videos every day.