Although Superman’s fame in the video game industry has never been anywhere near the best, there is no denying that Attempts to develop a decent title of the DC Comic character have not been in short supply. In fact, it has recently been possible to learn about one that occurred almost 10 years ago by from the team behind Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader for Nintendo Game Cube, Factor 5, which would have hit the market with the sequel to Superman Returns by Bryan Singer. Needless to say, this movie suffered the same fate.
This project it has been known thanks to the developer Salvatrix, who has published it on their social networks along with a video of the supposed title, which would have been inspired by Justice League Unlimited, the acclaimed animated series with the greatest DC heroes and that had Superman as one of its main protagonists. Likewise, it is unknown if this inspiration would have gone further and we would have seen a continuation of the events of the series. You can see the gameplay below:
It should be noted that the project seemed quite advanced, showing aerial fights, as well as a large open world. In fact, in a fragment of the video we can even see how it was possible to go through buildings, which would have made the fights something more similar to what happens in the cinema, where superheroes do not have much attachment to street furniture.
The crisis led to the cancellation of the project and the closure of the study
Nevertheless, the bad news was not long in coming, since although the prototype that has been shown went much further, the economic crisis and the closure of Factor 5 in 2009 led to its inevitable cancellation. In fact, the developer claims that this cancellation has been what he regrets most about his career, as you wish you could see the game at launch.
It should be noted that, unfortunately, these types of events are more common in the industry than we think, thus giving rise to many canceled projects not even being known. However, not all of them fall into oblivion, since even 20 years later, they rise from their ashes, the most recent case being the Metroid Dread. It remains to be seen if Superman suffers the same fate.