"Development hell is a vicious cycle" is practically an understatement for some of these titles. A handful of the most anticipated games in history have been sitting in various stages of production for so long that entire console generations have come and gone while players waited. Here some games that have spent more than a decade in development, and where each one stands right now.
Beyond Good & Evil 2: the 19-year wait
This is the one that started in pre-production back in 2007, making it the undisputed poster child of development hell. Ubisoft confirmed as recently as January 2026 that Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still active after the studio cancelled six other projects. It survived the cull.
The game is built as an open-world action-adventure set in space, functioning as a prequel to the 2003 original. Players can create their own character, and the design has shifted heavily toward RPG territory compared to the first game. The concept involves traveling between planets, each with distinct societies, quests, and characters.
Public showings have been sparse. A reveal trailer dropped in 2008, a leaked gameplay clip surfaced in 2009, and then E3 2017 delivered a trailer that genuinely electrified the crowd. One more trailer appeared at E3 2018, and since then: nothing. Nineteen years of development with no release window in sight.
Squadron 42: feature complete, still not shipping
Cloud Imperium Games announced Squadron 42 in 2012, one year after Star Citizen entered pre-production. The single-player first-person shooter set within the Star Citizen universe was originally scheduled for a 2014 release. That date came and went, and so did many others.
In December 2025, the studio announced the game is fully playable and feature complete, with a 2026 release window targeted. With only a few months left in 2026 at this point, that window is looking tight. The project is ambitious: the first episode alone is planned to run up to 20 hours, with two more episodes to follow.
Here's the thing that makes Squadron 42 genuinely compelling despite the wait: the cast is remarkable. Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, and Damson Idris are all involved. That level of talent attached to a project that still hasn't launched after 14 years is a strange kind of spectacle.
Project Awakening: Cygames' silent decade
Cygames first announced Project Awakening at Cygames Next 2016 in Tokyo, with an official reveal at E3 2018. A behind-closed-doors gameplay slice shown to press at that event featured a knight battling a large reptilian enemy, with combat described as drawing from Monster Hunter and Dragon's Dogma.
A 2021 appearance at the Cygames Tech Conference was mostly a technical demonstration covering terrain generation and weather systems rather than actual gameplay. After that, silence for years.
Cygames CEO Koichi Watanabe recently broke that silence in an interview with Famitsu (issue 1955), describing development as "progressing steadily" and saying the game is "starting to take shape." After a decade, that's the update. Progress is being made. That's it. For fans of the Monster Hunter and Dragon's Dogma style of combat, Project Awakening remains one of the more intriguing unknowns in gaming.
GTA 6: the most anticipated delay in history
Rockstar Games began pre-production on Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2014, meaning the full development cycle spans 12 years by the time it launches. Full production kicked off in 2018, and the game has since slipped from a fall 2025 window to May 2026, and now to November 19, 2026.
Calling GTA 6 a development hell case is a stretch given the scale of what Rockstar is building, but the road has been genuinely rocky. A major security breach in September 2022 leaked dozens of internal development videos, exposing the dual-protagonist structure and the return to Vice City before Rockstar was ready to show any of it. In April 2024, the studio mandated a return-to-office policy citing productivity and security concerns during the final development stretch. Then in October 2025, 34 employees were let go amid reports they had been organizing with labor groups.
What most players miss in the noise around GTA 6 is that the game itself appears to be in solid shape. The delays have been real, but there's no indication the project is in creative trouble. November 19 is the date. It's happening.
The Wolf Among Us 2: nine years and still not done
The original Wolf Among Us launched in 2013 as one of Telltale Games' most celebrated projects. A sequel was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2017, targeting a 2018 release. Then Telltale shut down entirely in 2018, taking the sequel with it.
The studio was revived by LCG Entertainment in 2019, and The Wolf Among Us 2 was announced again at The Game Awards that year, this time developed in collaboration with AdHoc Studio, a team made up of former Telltale employees. The project then spent years grinding through delays in 2023 and 2024, more layoffs at the revived Telltale, and eventually AdHoc Studio pulling out of the project entirely after disagreements with the studio.
A re-reveal at Summer Game Fest 2026 put the game back on the radar. The current target is a 2027 release window, which would put it at roughly 10 years from announcement by the time it ships. The sequel is reported to carry a significantly darker tone than the first game, and will follow the same five-episode structure. Whether the turbulent production history shows in the final product is the real question hanging over it.
For players keeping up with games that are actually out and playable right now, the gaming guides section covers everything from survival mechanics to performance settings. If you're waiting on any of these titles and need something to fill the gap, the Nova Roma best settings for PC and PS5 guide is worth bookmarking for when that game needs tuning. And if you're already deep into something like I Am Future, the I Am Future end-game fixes guide covers the late-game issues the community has been flagging. GTA 6 drops November 19. Everything else on this list remains a waiting game.
