Superman's Cancelled Open World Game - Unseen64
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
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Unseen64 is an independent, non-profit online archive dedicated to the preservation of videogame history. Unseen64 contributors help document prototype and cancelled videogames by archiving information, images, and videos for future reference. The organization is led by a collective of gamers from all around the world. If you would like to contribute, please read more at: www.unseen64.net/help
This cancelled Superman project was an open world game being made by Factor 5 or the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. It was an open world game with a big line-up of villains, and would recreate many classic battles from the Superman comics. It was essentially Factor 5's last major project in development before their closure. Liam Robertson is a video game researcher and archiver. In his spare time, Liam creates videos and articles for Unseen64, but will also be contributing to the DidYouKnowGaming channel.
Facebook: didyouknowgaming
Twitter: @DidYouKnowGamin
Website: DidYouKnowGaming.com
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Man, poor Factor 5. Seems like they just kept getting the shaft when all they were trying to do was make GOOD games. :(
Honestly, this has to be one of the saddest studio shutdowns in video game history.
+buzzboy 24 it is, along with Pandemic Studios, darn you EA, Ensemble Studios, darn you Microsoft
+buzzboy 24 THQ still takes the cake
This along with the acquisition of Rare by Microsoft kill me.
blame blame Brash Entertainment for that
Hi, everyone! I'm Liam, the creator of this video who works with Unseen64. I hope you enjoy it and I'll be here to answer any questions
where do you guys get this information
cracking video,really interesting stuff.
i was about to call you a liar, now i have to say good job on this video.
daddy
+thekillbiel I would like to know as well
I want a Superman game as fun and dynamic as RockSteady's Batman game :(
+Ceamonks890 I don't believe that is there main project more like a side thing
WB Montreal (the guys who made Arkham Origins) are working on it. I can't wait.
YESSSS
With great powers it comes bad games
Zaragoza Motivation not possible with current tech as superman is too OP. You can't translate that into an open world game.
we were so close to getting a good Superman game... if only this game was actually released.
I feel so bad for all the people who lost their jobs working hard on something they believed in
It happened with both Flash AND Superman. Brash really screwed everybody over.
Instead we get left with Superman 64 and Superman Returns...
Goddamn it.
Superman 64 was originaly planned to be out in 1998 and also to be an open world game but Warner Bros did not like the idea of the open world game and that Superman fights "real" people, amoung list of other stuff so the devs worked so hard to change the game to be how WB wanted.
There is a beta of Superman 64 leaked.
Just write "Superman 64 beta" and you find it how it looks the same but it is not the same game
Superman Returns isn't bad.
+HiddenTalent77 Apparently there were plans to port Superman 64 to the PlayStation. Unfortunately the license for Superman ran out for Titus Software and BlueSky Software and the port remained unfinished. Those few who were able to actually play it have remarked that the PlayStation version completely redeemed the original N64 game.
+Merrick Solidor Yeah. I've seen ProtonJon's Lets Play.
+Justin ™ It's not BAD. It's just really not very good. Kind of like the actual movie.
The poor guys just wanted to make a good game and got shut down.
+Jay Lennie That seems to be how a majority of these videos go.
***** YOOOOOOOO
Anyone remember Hulk: Ultimate Destruction? That game was fucking rad, and is still one of the best superhero games ever made.
Dormammu took two years but yes, I do. Fucking amazing game. I personally think its better than Spiderman 2 tbh.
that game was the bomb
I never played Ultimate Destruction, but I did play the Prototype games.
1:20 Oh yes... The Flush! Hero of public restrooms.
XD
+MAT2 II xD
+jeff peake No shit
+jeff peake he said flush
+john johnson nope i heard flash!
I hope rocksteady makes a proper superman game
they've already made good batman games except arkham knight on the pc but other wise the console versions were amazing
It really seems like no one can get a proper superman game to work. Rocksteady would possibly be the ones to make it work if they were up to the challenge
+Marco Ayala Arkham Knight on the PC was just a bad port, not a bad game
pchfg that's what i meant it was buggy for the first few weeks compared to the console ports and that really turned away alot pc gamers even post patch
+Porkins Prime That's not even funny.
It's stuff like this that really piss me off. Factor 5 did a great job on those starwars games. And by the sound and look of it, that superman game would have been interesting. If Factor 5 would have gotten to stay in business I wonder how many more gems they would have come out with since then.
+iamfuturetrunks I don't know why GOOD companies when they make MILLIONS, don't just see this shit and buy out their old devs, pay their fines and get them to produce quality.
EA buys out companies then changes what they do, this pisses me right off.
+frostydowns yeah I know. Why buy a developer and make them create bad games in genres they aren't familiar with.
The industry is polluted by money. You only get the funds you need if you make promises that sacrifice quality. Suppose it's to be expected. For example:
Irrational Games was poised to make BioShock Infinite great, but it ended up an overall failure that brought the entire studio down. As a BioShock Wiki editor, I followed the game's development VERY closely - from interview to interview - and I believe I know the main reason the game was so... forgettable.
In one interview with Ken Levine (lead developer), he mentioned doing Q & A with casual college gamers, discovering they did not even know of BioShock. This appears to have been their target demographic, as he mentions them knowing games like COD and using that as an explanation for their design choices.
That's where the problems were. 2K Games wasn't going to keep funding BioShock Infinite unless they could promise a major turnout. As such, he dragged the development focus closer to the FPS and less about the storytelling. Yes, the game had an interesting story to tell, but it was buried under the repetitive battles which, while required to an extent for the sake of vigors and such, had been drawn out for a mainly-FPS oriented game with some story.
This did not mix well. The FPS group would rather play online and not be interrupted by story, whereas the dedicated fans did not want to be dragged out of the story so constantly to deal with the same enemies. Note that, earlier in development based on the gameplay videos, the game was heading in a different direction which kept story and intrigue at its core. More so, it incorporated features such as tears at an even higher level than the final game. Buildings has dynamic movement, with dynamic destruction. Songbird would be a more spontaneous threat than entirely scripted. Features dropped to keep the game on schedule, to focus on mass appeal... It's really sad.
The only reason the game had its DLC was because of the Season Pass promise they had made long before release. The first DLC ended up being separately developed "challenge maps," which were heavily panned as they were far beyond those who had prolonged interest in the game: The story-driven fans. The next DLC attempted to show a variant of Rapture closer to Columbia, but when casual fans complained it was not BioShock 1's Rapture, the next DLC completely dropped these features without a word of explanation, attempting to directly tie the stories of BioShock 1 and Infinite together, and leaving a major plothole with BioShock 2 (admittedly, developed by a separate studio, but to this point BioShock 2's canon had gone uncontested nor mentioned), which left it only possible as a non-BioShock 1 Rapture.
Although by the time of the last DLC, they had already announced impending closure. After the DLCs release, they were to and had closed the studio. The game was a financial loss, because they wanted to see the project through so much, they let their publisher dictate their demographic and focus, which contradicted the game itself. I personally feel, had they stayed their original course and made the game it was originally turning out to be, the game would have done far better, and the studio might still be around today.
Oh yeah, I remember mentioning to one of my friends at one point how bioshock infinite had changed from the look and feel of the first trailer or two. How the levels were gonna be even bigger. There also looked to be that if you kept using Elizabeth's powers it was slowly killing her maybe.
So when I started playing the game I didn't use her powers unless absolutely necessary. Then I realized or saw at the end that, that wasn't the case and that I had wasted my time doing all that stuff.
I also found most of the game so boring. And like other games out there with gimiks kinda like the viggors/plasmids is that barely any enemy uses them. "OH hey we have all these bottles of all these super powers laying around, but don't use them lets just use guns"
There was 1-2 guys who used vigors (maybe) one with fire, and one with ravens.
Also by the look of one of the trailers it looked like maybe you were going in between dimensions/parallel worlds like where the button on the guys shirt just slowly changes (like a tear).
The first few trailers made the game look great, then I heard that because they wanted the games on consoles they had to dumb down the game and make the levels smaller etc. Then I had heard about how Ken started changing the direction half way through the games development. It sounded like he was mainly focusing on the story and didn't want the plasmids/vigors/gun fighting.
But yeah it was a bit of a disappointment. I went into the game expecting a fun game like bioshock 1 (just in the daylight) and what I was left with was boring forgetful game. And I never really go for DLC (I prefer physical copies of stuff I buy) so even though I was interested in visiting rapture again I ended up not getting it, and later on saw someone play it and it wasn't that great anyways.
I am hopping later on to make some videos and put them on youtube covering games in the past iv played where game companies really missed the ball or great opportunities.
There are some that just bug me to no end and yet they STILL haven't been answered.
Bioshock infinite is one of those games. Though I don't/didn't know all the details as to why things were changed.
iamfuturetrunks they could’ve been up their with Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Rockstar, etc. because they actually cared
The focus on getting the flight mechanic right is exactly what you have to do with Superman, it's upsetting that a studio with the right ideas in so many areas got shut down. This video made me sad
Another example of creative artists making something that a lot of people would enjoy, but then being ultimately snuffed out by higher-uppers who have no idea what the hell they're doing.
+M. Strain Jr. here's the thing, they were working on something, but we cant say it would be good or not, there are a few things that i dont think would work that well, be it the QTEs, or the combat.
that being said, the potential was there.
damn, Factor 5 had suffered multiple situations that could only be defined as "if it could go wrong, it certainly did go wrong".
murphys law
Dear Rocksteady,
Please take over
thanks, the fans.
+K Damon Nearly every Superman fan right now
I second this
+K Damon There is rumor that WB Montreal, Creator of Arkham Origins... is developing the next superman games just like batman arkham series...
K Damon It's happening.
K Damon ... IT IS GOING...DOWN!!!
Brash died because of Brash business decisions...
Well done.
Mark Kalegaric I do my best.
The irony
Fitting lol.
@@lewisaino yes quite fitting
imagine work on that for months and months and then nothing...
I guess you could say....
Their project was always headed for doomsday.
I love you. XD
Mr. Meeseeks should you be dead yet?
blame Brash Entertainment
*slow clap*
The cursed license
Fucking flying through rings.
+Demon Rantz Superman Returns is fun
Damn, Factor 5 just got the worst luck after the Gamecube era.
Factor 5 would have easily done for Superman what Rocksteady did for Batman. It’s very sad that this game never saw the light of day.
I love this series. Learning about cancelled games is so fascinating. Thanks SO much. *thumbs up*
Hope he does more.
You don't get too fly through rings in that game? Wow...
Haha!
To*
Very informative video. It's too bad this Superman game didn't get made. It would've showed that a great Superman game can be made. I would've loved to have seen and experience an open-world Superman game with many of his villains.
Wow that bit with doomsday looked cool.
oh gawd, this could have been the superman equivalent to Arkham City, such wasted potential, I wish someone had picked them up
i wonder if their moto was going to be "its not superman 64"
Kickstart that game and that team from Factor5 NOW
This is your best serie, keep making them! Really interesting.
That Alvin and the Chipmunks game looks like it belongs on the N64.
I forgot this channel existed... BUT NOW I REMEMBER SO IS OK
Saddest part is that you can see the love. These guys had a clear love and respect for Superman. The art and that Doomsday model looks fantastic.
Blue Steel -- Superman Is known as Big Blue.
F-Zero.
+Will Mac Isn't that IBM?
+aprofondir that's Deep Blue.
+Will Mac in the end he got blue balled
+Oscar Velazquez
Well, it's theorized that Superman would completely obliterate a woman if he slept with her, (As in her organs would be disintegrated and her head would explode) so there's a reason he doesn't have sex.
We need to have a Superman game like the Arkham Saga but with flying.
+Ben B. But literal flying, not gliding, fly from the flour or inside a building. And also a great use of Superman's powers. Sorry for my bad english, i'm spanish.
Everytime I watch video you make about a Factor 5 game its just makes to feel all types of depressed. That poor studio just wanted to make great games with new ideas but lady luck was not on there side.
LegendsP Lady Luck is a real bitch at times.
It's always the highly promising licensed games that get the short end of the stick when it comes to development.
+Nana-Kyoto And then we get stuck with the Men in Black 3 game.
And yet, we get Call of Duty year after year.
This game looked pretty dang sweet... why does this die in silence but Superman 64 gets released? :/
Because the company ran out of money.
+T vampasta So I saw in the video, but that's so uncool. I mean, from some interviews I've read with the makers of Superman 64, it seems that they too were trying to make a good Superman game but were hindered by DC itself. Now this game seemed to have none of those problems and it ends up lacking money? Cruel world we live in... for, well, several other reasons than this. This just kinda sucks.
+AzureDarkGod agreed.
Does anyone remember the Superman game for the PS2 that had a cartoonish art style? I can't remember the name of it but I loved that game as a kid.
superman shadow of apokolips
OMG yes that was it! I loved that game!
Was it based on the animated series?
Will the world ever see a good Superman game? God i hope so, Superman Returns is a good flight simulator but that's all. Closest thing we got to even a half decent game is probably DCUO, and that's just sad :/
+Mark Donald DC Universe Online
It's actually pretty good but i wish we got a genuine game like the Arkham series.
Has no one played shadow of apokolips that was an awesome game
Damn, some company out there should buy the rights to this game and reboot it. This game had potential especially from the ideas they had. This could of been the best super hero game since Spiderman 2.
H8rdwork if it’s any consolation, we have Spider-Man for PS4.
How ironic that a cancelled game had a better looking Doomsday than the new movie...
+Élio Ribeiro The doomsday we have seen in the trailer is going to change forms most likely well get a more comic book looking one during the fight.
I sure hope so, Wednesday I'll tell you if you were right :)
Élio Ribeiro Wont need to ill be in the theater by then.
Sure thing
So,uh...we can all agree it looked better here, right?
Thankfully, we can all still play the N64 version.
+Filipe Lima If the PS1 version existed...!
Blue Steel fell through? Should've gone with Magnum, instead. ;)
+Lotus Prince IT'S THE SAME THING! DOESN'T ANYBODY REALIZE THAT? I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!
Brash Entertainment took down Factor 5 and Battle Rocket.... makes me so sad
Superman 64.... was more successful than this... This world is just unfair sometimes.
no joke. that turd at least got to release.. to make the world weep.. i know i did. i had it on release day for about an hour before i got rid of it.
WE SHOULD CROWD FUND THR COMPANY
Great video, Liam! Glad to see your hard work paid off in spades! As for Factor 5, it's such a shame they were hit with so many hardships not of their doing, they could have made some great games. Then again, just because they had great ideas does not necessarily mean it would result in good titles.
This game would've been fantastic. It's a damn shame that it got cancelled.
As someone that's trying to get into the game industry, these episodes are more like horror stories than trivia.
You could say they were too...brash.
Poor Factor 5. I loved them... :'(
I'm not sure if it's sad or impressive that the best Superman in video games thus far is in the Lego Batman games. They are pretty fun games, though, so there's that.
As someone who spent so much of his childhood playing the rouge squadron games, I always wondered what happened to factor 5. It's a shame, I would have loved to see what other games they could have made.
3:54 - 4:10 What, no Zoolander?
yeah dude, blue steel is totally a zoolander look
+Headpool182
BLUE STEEL?! FERRARI?! LA TIGRA?! IT'S THE SAME THING!
Mindd Kidzag, it's called blue steel and he says it's a reference to Superman being called Man of Steel which makes sense but they reference blue harvest (Return of the Jedi) and not Zoolander even though the look is literally called blue steel
Protoman, except Magnum has special powers
By far my favorite series on this channel!
Man this was depressing to hear..poor company
Absolutely brilliant video. Great work.
I want a superman fucking game
There are plenty of websites for that.
+Bergerachter Damnit, beat me to it.
SorakuFett that's not all he beat
All we have so far is one semi-decent 1 (Superman Returns) and mods for GTA 4 and 5.
This is so strange!
Today I was watching the rest of the Unseen64 playlists and wondering why there wasn't a new one.
This makes me so sad. If that happened today, they could have sought crowd funding to make the definitive Superman game. It's definitely technically feasible now
+David Plentl Yeah, if the crowd wants to fund them another $400 million
THANK YOU!! I remember reading about this in Game Informer and nothing ever became of it. No one knows what I'm talking about when I mention it so THANK YOU for revealing this!!
Isn't Blue Steel Zoolander's signature look?
+Joel Monteiro NO thats magnum your taking crazy pills
Holy crap, a new series? That was sooner than I expected.
A new video you mean.
We need a Superman or Supergirl game.
Supergirl no, Superman !
Nice almost 2 million subs, dude. Will we get the Half-Life DYKGaming episode then, or will you wait for HL3?
Someone make a petition to start this game back up again
For real
So, if I'm to understand this...We could had had a Batman game, a Flash game, and a Superman game all released around the same two to three year time frame. And the only reason we didn't get the latter two, is because one publisher didn't know what the fuck they were doing and went bankrupt.
Just think about what the landscape of gaming would be like if three really good superhero games came out all at the same time.
🤔…yeah pretty much.
Superman 64 is the only Superman game I will ever need.
+foufoufun0 Clearly you have never played the Atari 2600 gem.
I've got some ideas to make a somewhat realistic Superman game. The 1st suggestion have multiple maps set across the world and as soon as you exit the map you'll just enter a screen with the map of the globe allowing you to go to any of the other maps. And the maps could be big open world like one could obviously be metropolis and other famous arias from the Superman universe. You could also have it where you could go off world to different planets like Superman does from time to time. But mostly work on the controls to make it actually work and the idea of switching characters might be nice. It would have different versions of Superman that you could play as and other characters like Supergirl
"Blue Steel was an amalgamation of multiple cultural references" ....zoolander
"like Steel, referencing Superman's nickname." ....Zoolander.
"or Blue Harvest, the working title for Star Wars" .....fucking ZOOLANDER.
It wasn't a reference to Zoolander. Nothing to do with this.
Bet it was.
June 2018 is going to be the 80th anniversary of Superman's first appearance. That's just over two years - can someone please use that time to make a good Superman game?
And I mean a good SOLO Superman game. Lego Batman doesn't count.
This makes me really depressed.
Factor 5 was my favorite developer for fucking years. Lair was okay, but the Rogue series games were some of my favorites of all time. There hasn't been a single Star Wars combat flightsim released since Rebel Strike in 2003!
It makes me really sad to learn they got fucked sideways. Just trying to do something they love to do.
That Superman Returns game was the last good Superman game
Oh I wish there was a first Night at the Museum game.
Interesting retrospective, even though there were a number of inaccuracies. Still neat to take a stroll down memory lane. :)
I wish Rocksteady would get to Superman, soon.
that intro is so smooth I love it
Damn it. I want an open world Superman game and an open world Avengers game.
Whats the problem with wanting an open world Superman game and an open world Avengers game? We were going to get an Avengers game which was going to tie in to the movie but unfotunately that game got cancelled and it was going to have the Skrulls and was going to be in a first person perspective.
I genuinely hope a company picks up this project and finishes it. It would be awesome to have a new Superman game as we've had such a long run with Batman.
+GreenHillHedgehog No one will. A project is not ideas, but the ability to execute it. There are no "idea" people in the game industry. You need ideas AND the ability to execute them. The tech behind it is last gen and useless now, so the core design is all that is left. The team scattered to the four winds. The lead designer doesn't even work on console games anymore.
"Twentythirdeen"
Fuckedherfive
I always wondered what happened to this game. I always thought it came out but that I somehow just missed it. It seemed odd that I would, but I remembered seeing so much of its in magazines and stuff that it seemed unthinkable that it would not come out
"Fucktor 5 inc." Ehehe...
Busting through the walls while smacking Doomsday high above the city sounds fucking AWESOME.
Someone show this to Angry Joe.
This is so sad :( hope they all got back into the gaming industry.
Leason Learned:
Keep it small, simple and awesome, leave the OPEN WORLD for sequels, just look at batman series, you cant have arkham city without arkham asylum first, you need to get a scope of scale and work your way up on the sequels , have product ready asap too
+Oscar Velazquez I don't think something like arkham asylum would work for superman
Man, poor Factor 5. No company that dedicated deserves to be on this show so many times.
Did superman ever had a good game for his fans?
They must get it one day, they deserve it
nope... Didn't get a good one
+Ciccio Imberlicchio While not specifically Superman games into them selves, Injustice and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Superheros were good games. I also recall a Superman game for the Sega Genesis but I don't remember if it was any good.
+Ciccio Imberlicchio The Death and Return of Superman for the SNES/Genesis is good, isn't it?
I actually liked Superman Returns. It was pretty decent. We even got to free roam as Bizarro.
i thought super man returns was fun but i was only destroying the city
Anyone else think of Zoolander as soon as he said Blue Steel?
we have superman 64
Savion Ramsundar are you serious or kidding?
@@johndoe-dp3lv Learn waht a joke is, edgelord.
@@analanus3131 I wasn't serious 😂
poor superman, no matter what, he can never catch a break when it comes to video games.
Wreck the City Simulator
+Xenotherium Subservilia Which I'm sure is exactly the first thing people would have done is destroy the whole city first
Was the "Blue Steel" title also a reference to Zoolander's look? Wouldn't be surprised considering how much of the game's combat system seemed to rely on laser vision.
God this is depressing
So sad... but great documentary! Can you do one of these on the development of Duke Nukem Forever and the many scrapped attempts?
No Mention of Blue Steel from Zoolander?
It would've been really funny if you uploaded a video with this exact title on April Fools day, and the video was about Superman 64, using promotional materials and articles from before the game was released and saying it was "sadly cancelled," maybe even show gameplay footage and say it's an early alpha.
rocksteady should make the next superman game, now there are done with batman
+General Grievous I don't think they are done with Batman
+nudl3Zz
The only thing they could do is more "Origin" episodes or spin offs, which I don't think they'll do. A new series would do well for them, and Superman could be it. (Also remember, no one thought a good Batman game could be made until they did it.)
Darkest Night look at the last arkham insider and the ending of arkham knight certainly doesn't mean that the seires is over
nudl3Zz
The ending of Arkham Knight suggests that Bruce either died, or faked his death, but that does not mean he is still Batman. Him just returning as Batman destroys the meaning of Batman. The Criminal world knew the Batman was Bruce, so their fear of this mysterious vigilante disappeared. The only way for Batman to mean something again, would be for someone else to step up. As the "Batman" that we see at the very end is clearly a hallucination of sorts, we know this is not Bruce, as he has never used anything like that in his run as Batman. (Excluding comics, as the Arkham-Verse is clearly an alternate universe.)
Whether this new Batman is Azreal, or Nightwing, we don't know, but I kind of don't want to. They finished their trilogy perfectly, and I look forward to what character they tackle next. (I wouldn't mind seeing Green Lantern, with an Arrow vibe to it..)
Darkest Night but it doesn't matter what you want :-D the ending still makes it look like there will be something else
Pretty awesome video, totally Worth the wait. Any ideas on what Rocksteady might be planning for their next DC games?
I personally think a justice League game. if not it's probably superman, flash, or arrow since those are the biggest properties beside batman. superman and flash would be hard to get right but both have great potential and I more than trust rockstar
+seandan317 rockateady*
+seandan317 fuck it I'm on mobile
***** Why? There's already so many games about batman, surely they wanna try something diferent.
***** I know, it's basically the same thing.
nah they cancelled it becuse some one reminded them of Super Man 64 and got scared.
thx very much for such entertaining pieces ..good stuff