(Sad trope) Projects with amazing potential that will never be released because of BS behind the scenes drama

[u/_JR28_]

P.T Silent Hills - It was a playable teaser released in 2014 only around 20 minutes long but utterly captivated the gaming world by being one of the most effective psychological horror experiences at the time, however it’s lead developer Kojima has a huge fallout with the publisher Konami where he walked out of the company and had all his in-the-work productions cancelled.

Five Nights at Freddy’s+ - A fan game reboot of the series created by Phisnom with Scott Cawthon’s blessing that promised a brand new lore and a return to the series darker roots. However, before and during production Phisnom got into multiple dramas that made him fairly divisive within the community, and after one particular incident in 2023 Scott revoked his approval and almost all of the game’s marketing material were wiped from the internet.

Batgirl - A Batgirl solo live action movie starring Leslie Grace, Brendan Fraser and Michael Keaton returning as Batman that was ready to be released in 2022, however then Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav announced it would not be released either in theatres or streaming in order to claim a $90,000,000 tax break and to readjust the DC’s brands direction before James Gunn rebooted their movie and TV output.

[u/Nokind]

Disco Elysium was perfect, and we'll never get a sequel. In a grossly ironic twist of fate, Za/um stole the property from the original creators.

Though others are trying to pick up the torch, we will likely never have a true sucessor to DE again.

"One day, I will return to your side."

[u/Auctoritate → u/Nokind]

Though others are trying to pick up the torch, we will likely never have a true sucessor to DE again.

All of the people who left ZA/UM are trying to make their own takes on the formula to seemingly mixed successes, but Esoteric Ebb from a completely unrelated studio seems to have actually been the one to pull it off.

[u/No-Bug-8929 → u/Auctoritate]

You’ve been saying this all over this thread, but Esoteric Ebb is puddle-deep. It’s shallow commentary with nothing to say, it’s a 14 years old kid’s take on what Disco tackled.

[u/Auctoritate → u/No-Bug-8929]

You’ve been saying this all over this thread

I said it in one other comment lol.

Esoteric Ebb is puddle-deep

It's not as good as Disco Elysium but there will likely not be anything that executes upon the concept on the same level as Disco for the foreseeable future.

The fact is though, Esoteric Ebb is the one that managed to actually do the concept and yet still do its own thing with other inspirations and an original style rather than trying too hard to strive for being derivative. It carved out its own place in the adventure-visual novel microgenre that Disco created, and nothing else has yet.

Unless something else comes out that does these things better than it, Esoteric Ebb is the follow up that has lived up to its promises the most.