The development of MMORPGs is so complex and difficult that projects are often canceled before their release. MeinMMO presents some of these prematurely buried online role-playing games that were supposed to be based on particularly well-known and popular franchises.
The year 2025 was notoriously not easy for fans of the MMORPG genre. New releases that could fully convince were missing. Instead, one bad news followed another. Particularly bitter: The new online RPG for Warhammer is at an end after several years of development. The reason: Investor NetEase is reducing its investments in Western projects.
After the end of New World and the realignment of Amazon Games, the premature cancellation of the new MMORPG based on The Lord of the Rings could soon be announced. At least that’s what the news from an affected developer suggested. The project is still listed on the official games listing of the studio.
That would be bitter, wouldn’t it? But such things haven’t only happened since 2025. Over the past decades, numerous MMORPG projects have been canceled before their release. Below, we remember the online role-playing games that were supposed to be based on particularly well-known and popular universes. For which of these franchises would you love to see a modern MMORPG?
Fallout Online
Setting: Post-apocalyptic | Developer / Publisher: Interplay / Black Isle | Platform: PC | Cancelled: 2011
With Ultima Online and EverQuest the 3D era of MMORPGs really took off in the late 1990s. Of course, this did not escape the attention of those responsible at Interplay or Black Isle, who had just released two role-playing hits with Fallout 1 and Fallout 2.
Specifically, it was industry veteran Brian Fargo, who would have loved to make an MMORPG based on Fallout next. However, the then head of Black Isle Studios, Feargus Urquhart, rejected this idea. The reason: He did not believe that Interplay had the resources to implement an MMORPG that could easily cost 100 million US dollars.
Furthermore, Urquhart feared that Interplay would have no opportunity to develop other games if it had to focus around the clock on maintaining an MMORPG. He received support from Tim Cain, the creator of Fallout. However, he was particularly disturbed by the thought of encountering 1,000 other people in the wasteland. That just doesn’t fit Fallout!
Despite this opposition, work on Fallout Online reportedly began in November 2006 at a special online department of Interplay. They were even allowed to continue working on the project when Interplay had to sell the rights to the Fallout series to Bethesda in 2007 due to financial difficulties. In June 2010, the game was officially announced.
Development initially made noticeable progress, and a closed beta test even took place. However, with the global financial crisis in 2007, the situation likely changed drastically. A lawsuit arose because Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment allegedly stopped paying certain employees. Additionally, there were disputes between the developers and rights holder MGM.
In March 2010, publisher FireSky finally announced that Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment had been placed under receivership. In February, the studio had filed for bankruptcy. The licensing agreement expired in November 2010. This marked the premature end of Stargate Worlds. Some of the legal disputes arising from this disaster would continue for several years. A few years later, the MMO Defiance attempted to take the symbiosis of series and game to a new level.
