Also, perhaps ironically, no relation to Steam. Should not be confused with Vapor Wear, Vaporwave, or so on. IMPORTANT! If a work was ever released-if it was ever available for purchase-then it was Saved from Development Hell, not this trope, and such examples should go there (or be moved there upon release). See also the Canceled Video Games index for pages about games that have been officially canceled by their creators. See also Saved from Development Hell for a few who managed to get completed. Contrast Dead Fic and Orphaned Series, which actually manage to release more than a teaser (thanks to serialization) before eventually being abandoned incomplete. More than a few games have also fallen victim to runaway ego and perfectionism, where the designers get distracted by their own artistic visions or desire to create something revolutionary and genre-shattering and won't be satisfied until it's 'perfect', cost, publishers, and release dates be damned! (With predictable results).Ĭompare Development Hell and What Could Have Been.

Combine this with people leaving the project out of frustration with the lack of forward progress and it gets harder to finish with every delay. Often, when a big goal is for the product to be up with the current technology, it becomes a self-reinforcing feedback loop of sorts when work has to be scrapped to keep up with the times. The developers simply promised more than their programmers could possibly deliver in too short a time frame.

Most of the time there is a legitimate product being produced, but internal problems simply result in it falling behind schedule and being passed in the marketplace by competitors. That said, the vast majority of vaporware isn't malicious. In the most extreme cases, the developing company itself may be a total fraud. Sometimes this is intentional, done by various promoters and stockholders solely to drive up the company's share prices, lure in new investors, or create a buzz in the marketplace that will keep their name on top. Note that long development cycles do not, by themselves, qualify a product as Vaporware the game must be repeatedly postponed and put off, all the while being promoted as 'Coming soon!' Computer or video game software or hardware with revolutionary or next-generation capabilities that is continuously hyped to the public, but doesn't seem to be coming any closer to store shelves.

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