From the rain-slicked streets of Hong Kong to the neon-drenched dystopias of Prague, these are the follow-ups the world is still waiting for.
10. Sleeping Dogs
August 14, 2012 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One)
Sleeping Dogs did the undercover cop narrative better than GTA ever has, but the scrapped sequel plans are what truly sting. Before developer United Front Games closed, they had a “massively single-player” vision for Sleeping Dogs 2. It would have featured a cloud-based metagame where your actions, like busting a crime or taking a bribe, would dynamically adjust the city’s faction balance for every other player.
It also planned a full co-op mode and a conflicted partner system where you’d swap between Wei Shen and a corrupt lawman named Henry Fang. Square Enix passed on the pitch, choosing to fund a short-lived multiplayer spin-off (Triad Wars) that was cancelled before it ever even left beta.
9. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
August 23, 2016 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
This is the most painful cliffhanger in the immersive sim genre. Mankind Divided was clearly the second act of a planned trilogy that never materialized. The game ends abruptly after the London Apex Centre mission, leaving massive plot holes wide open: the identity of the mysterious Janus (the leader of the Juggernaut Collective) remains unconfirmed, and the post-credits reveal that Adam Jensen’s own psychologist is an Illuminati sleeper agent has never been resolved.
After the game’s less-than-desirable sales, Square Enix put the series on hiatus to make Marvel’s Avengers. With Eidos Montréal‘s recent project cancellation under Embracer Group, Jensen’s story is officially stuck in limbo.
8. Disco Elysium
October 15, 2019 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch)
A masterpiece of existentialism that left us wanting to explore more of the Pale, the world-eating nothingness that threatens the reality of Elysium. Unfortunately, the real world drama is as messy as a Harry Du Bois bender. The original creative leads were ousted from studio ZA/UM in a legal battle involving allegations of corporate fraud and hostile takeovers. While ZA/UM still holds the IP, the original visionaries have fractured into three separate spiritual successor studios (Longdue, Red Info, and Summer Eternal)
A direct sequel would need to address the “Return” teased at the end of the game, but without the original writers, any true follow-up feels like it would be missing its soul.
7. Days Gone
April 26, 2019 (PS4, PC)
The secret NERO ending provided one of the biggest rug-pulls of the PS4 era: O’Brian, your primary point of contact, reveals that the virus is evolving to make the infected sentient and hyper-athletic, while NERO itself is preparing for a total takeover.
Director Jeff Ross revealed that a sequel pitch was ready, featuring a shared world with co-op play and more complex horde mechanics involving 20,000+ entities. Sony reportedly rejected the sequel in favor of a new IP from Bend Studio, leaving the threat of the sentient Freakers eternally looming over the Pacific Northwest.
6. Prey (2017)
May 5, 2017 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Arkane Austin delivered a spiritual successor to System Shock that ended with a mind-shattering twist: you aren’t Morgan Yu, but a Typhon-human hybrid reliving Morgan’s memories through a neural simulation to see if you can feel empathy.
The game ends with a grey-haired Alex Yu revealing that Earth has already been overrun by Typhon, and he wants you to lead a bridge between the two species. With Microsoft shuttering Arkane Austin in 2024, the chance to see a sequel set on a Mimic-infested Earth is effectively zero, making this one of the most tragic losses in recent gaming history.
5. L.A. Noire
May 17, 2011 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
While the MotionScan tech used for the interrogations was notoriously expensive, the Noire brand is ripe for an anthology. The original developers, Team Bondi, attempted a spiritual successor called “Whore of the Orient” set in 1930s Shanghai, which was described as the greatest untold story of the 20th century, before being cancelled.
A true sequel doesn’t need Cole Phelps; it just needs that atmosphere. Fans have long campaigned for a 1970s era sequel, which would allow Rockstar to explore the grittier, Scorsese-esque side of crime that GTA usually plays for laughs.
4. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect
March 21, 2005 (PS2, GameCube, Xbox)
TimeSplitters was the king of personality-driven shooters, featuring everything from robotic goldfish to sentient gingerbread men. The series was famous for its robust Map Maker and frantic arcade challenges. A fourth game was in the works for years, and Embracer Group even reformed Free Radical Design with the original founders to bring it back.
However, the studio was unceremoniously closed in late 2023 during a company-wide restructure. We missed out on a modern version of the most chaotic multiplayer shooter ever made just as it was nearing the finish line.
3. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
March 21, 2005 (PS2, GameCube, Xbox)
This was the first game to gaslight the player, using Sanity Effects that pretended to delete your save files or lower your TV volume. A sequel would have limitless potential with modern console UIs. Imagine a game that pretends to crash your PS5 or sends fake system notifications to your phone.
Director Denis Dyack attempted a spiritual successor titled Shadow of the Eternals, but the project failed multiple Kickstarter campaigns and was marred by controversy. Nintendo still owns the patent on the “Sanity Meter,” meaning this revolutionary horror mechanic is sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
2. The Legend of Dragoon
June 11, 2000 (PlayStation)
Sony’s massive RPG project had a rhythm-action combat system called Additions that turned turn-based battles into high-stakes timing challenges. The lore of the Winglies and the Divine Dragon is incredibly deep, and the game ends with plenty of room for a prequel exploring the original Dragon Campaign from 10,000 years prior.
Despite being a consistent top-seller on the PS Classics store, Sony has never greenlit a sequel, leaving fans to survive on rumors of a Bluepoint-led remake that never quite surfaced.
1. The Saboteur
December 8, 2009 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Pandemic Studios’ final game used color as a mechanic, Nazi-occupied Paris was a stark, black-and-white noir film, and as you liberated districts, the color would bleed back into the world. It was a stylish, punk-rock take on WWII that featured parkour and explosive sabotage.
EA closed Pandemic Studios just weeks before the game released, effectively killing any hope for a sequel that could have polished the game’s rough-around-the-edges stealth mechanics into a true Assassin’s Creed rival.
While many of these titles are legally tethered to companies that have moved on, the ideas they pioneered, from Eternal Darkness’s psychological warfare to Sleeping Dogs’ living city, continue to influence the games we play today.
As long as fans keep these “what if” conversations alive on forums and social media, there is always a glimmer of hope. After all, if Dead Island 2 and Shenmue III could eventually break out of development hell, maybe, just maybe, one of these titles will get its second chance.