games that were never released ?

[broncoman]

i just bought bugs bunny it seems pretty kool i just dont understand atari back in the day finish a game then o well don't release it just plain dumb

[Nukey Shay]

There is usually some main problem of why games would be shelved/abandoned. Budget, liscensing problems, lack of a programmer, public disinterest in the subject, etc. A company is generally not going to continue a project that is expected to be in the red on the bottom line.

[MegaManFan]

And companies are known to dump games pretty far into development if funds suddenly dry up. The latest GI had a blurb about the software house making the latest Fear Effect or Syphon Filter sequel or some such (damn if I can remember which) suddenly being cut off by their parent company looking to cut IT'S losses, and they had to abandon the game 30 to 50% into it because they couldn't float such a massive project on their own. They were desperately trying to find a new suitor for their already "one step from gold master" games to get a big infusion of cash before they went belly-up as a whole. It's amazing how fragile your position can be if you're not a behemoth like Rockstar or Square.. and what am I saying, Square had to merge with Enix to survive. The 80's really weren't that much different in that respect, except that possibly a lot less pre-screening of project viability was done, so companies wasted a lot of money on incomplete games or when they did test the viability of games (such as with Quadrun) they only did it after the game was done and then just ordered a low print run of it to justify the cost of making it to begin with.

[Mendon]

Which costs more to do.... developing or the production/release?

 

While not an Atari game, from everything I've read both Half Life games for the DC were completely finished but just never went to pressing and release. If the actual development of the game is finished, it would seem a company could at least recoup some of its expenses by releasing the game. But if the production/release (whether CD or cart) is expensive, I can see where a company wants to possibly cut its losses while it can if it feels there is not a market out there to buy the game to cover manufacturing costs.

 

Just curious about costs.

 

Mendon

[Godzilla]

well, I don't know the actual numbers either, but I agree that they must be large enough to be prohibitive in situations where you are the least bit unsure (dreamcast half-life for example*,)

 

*but I do wonder about that, as they had already spent a lot of production money on that game, advertising, etc. Heck, I even have the official dreamcast half-life strategy guide.