Development hell may be a bad place, but it certainly isn't a lonely one. Some of the most promising and highly anticipated games end up there, through no fault of their own. The video game industry's screwy economic model, along with some short-sighted executives, have claimed a number great titles, breaking the heart of many a gamer in the process. While sometimes such a game will be surprisingly resurrected after a long dormant period or is eventually released as a bootleg via the Web, many titles never see the light of day.

In Part 1 of this series, we chronicled the tragedies of Earthbound Zero, Star Fox 2, Duke Nukem Forever, SimMars and Sam & Max Freelance Police. Here are five more notable games that were banished to development hell.

Ultima Online 2/Ultima Worlds Online: Origin (PC, 2001)

Way back in 1981, Richard "Lord British" Garriott created Ultima I, a fantasy RPG, for the Apple II. Nearly two decades and close to 20 instalments later, Garriott and his game development outfit Origin Systems announced Ultima Online 2, the sequel to the highly successful and influential 1997 MMORPG Ultima Online.

UO2, or Ultima Worlds Online: Origin as it was later called, seemed to have everything going for it. The Ultima series had become a hit-making franchise, and UO2 promised to take MMORPGs to the next level with enhanced graphics and a new 3D engine as well as improved multiplayer functions. In addition, UO2 had a promising and original story. Like previous Ultima titles, the new MMORPG would take place in the fantasy world of Sosaria/Brittania but in an alternate timeline that has suffered a time-space continuum disaster that brings a sort of Industrial Revolution age to the medieval realm. Oh, and comic book icon Todd McFarlane was retained by Origin to help design the game and fresh characters and imagery for the game. The highly-anticipated sequel was shown off at E3 2000, where it impressed many gamers and critics and got the hype machine in overdrive.

Ultima Online 2

But less than a year later, in a move that few could claim they saw coming, Origin parent company Electronic Arts (EA) pulled the plug on UO2. In fact, EA cancelled all of Origin's games that were in development at that time, including Privateer Online and Harry Potter Online. Apparently, EA felt UO2 would cannibalize the large subscriber base of Ultima Online - which would reach a height of 250,000 subscribers in 2003 and then gradually decline - and decided making smaller, less costly expansion packs for Ultima Online was the best way to go. It also seemed EA wasn't entirely confident in the MMORPG market and felt there was only so far that Ultima Online could go; obviously, the bright minds at EA never envision an MMORPG tallying six million subscribers five years later.

Whatever the reasons were behind the cancellation, the results were devastating. Garriott left Origin and formed a new company, Destination Games, which would later become part of the Korean MMORPG developer NCsoft. Origin and EA tried to soldier on, but another Ultima title, Ultima X: Odyssey, was killed in development in 2004 and soon after EA closed down Origin. While some of the ideas and innovations created for UO2 would be incorporated into later Ultima expansions, one could argue that the Ultima franchise was never the same after the demise of UO2. While Ultima Online was considered the first great MMORPG, other games such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft have surpassed the game in popularity, innovation and of course, subscribers.