Audience’s Rights Reform #2: No cancellations
Companies should never cancel anticipated works. When a company announces a work, it enters into a social contract with its audience. Fans invest their time, energy, and emotions into that expectation. To shatter those hopes without public input is disheartening, wasteful, and unfair. Cancellations not only destroy creative effort, but also damage the trust that sustains the relationship between creators and consumers.
It is fair to postpone works, but certainly not to cancel them. Anticipated works create cultural momentum, inspire discussion, and strengthen community. As soon as a project is publicly unveiled, the audience has already contributed value through attention and enthusiasm.
Being the ultimate consumers of creative works, audiences should be given a fair voice in such decisions. Corporate transparency would ensure fairness to audiences while providing creators with meaningful feedback. Governments should intervene where necessary to protect the public interest, requiring companies to release, complete, or open-source anticipated works rather than bury them indefinitely.
Both through direct revenue and increased brand loyalty, companies stand to benefit from releasing works belatedly. It makes complete economic sense. When demand is present, and especially if the work is complete or nearly so, cancellation amounts to a deep betrayal.
This principle should apply only to works that have been publicly announced or previewed. Companies should remain free to abandon early prototypes privately, but once a work enters public awareness, the public expects it to be completed. Cancellations should be subject to public vote, or at the very least, come up for public review after a certain interval.
Example A: Mega Man Legends 3
In 2011, Capcom announced Mega Man Legends 3 for the Nintendo 3DS, inviting fans to participate in development through its “Capcom Unity Devroom” program. Despite this unprecedented engagement and strong enthusiasm, Capcom abruptly cancelled the game. The decision sparked widespread disappointment and ongoing campaigns for revival. Here, fan participation created an ethical obligation: once a community helps shape a work, cancellation becomes an act of disregard toward that shared creative investment.
Example B: Twelve Tales: Conker 64
Before Conker’s Bad Fur Day became a linear adventure laden with adult jokes, Rare had originally envisioned Conker the squirrel’s video game as a family-friendly platformer titled Twelve Tales: Conker 64. This beta was developed to near completion, and still exists within the Rare/Microsoft archives. Furthermore, collectors are believed to hold additional copies.
Demand is overwhelmingly in favour of a belated release; tens of thousands have voiced support online, with nearly universal agreement that the two games should coexist. Releasing the beta as a ROM would yield profit, cultural value, and goodwill, whereas continuing to suppress it will only fuel resentment. Chances will only increase with time that a third party will illegally leak or recreate the game.
Example C: Super Mario 64 2
The Nintendo 64DD was a short-lived peripheral which added floppy disk compatibility to the Nintendo 64. It hit the Japanese market in late 1999. Despite the 64DD’s promise, it was abandoned in early 2001, never having been released outside of Japan.
Although only ten games were released for this peripheral, hundreds more were planned. The most notable of these was a direct sequel to Super Mario 64. This sequel, in which Mario would lead an army of miniature clones, later inspired the concept of Pikmin. Little else is known about the game, but countless fans have speculated. Much of this speculation is based on the content of later Mario games.
This demonstrates how cancellations can distort creative history — ideas survive, but without proper preservation or release, their context is lost. Suffice it to say, demand for a belated release (as a ROM) is high.
Example D: The Rescuers 3
Disney planned a third Rescuers movie, but quietly cancelled it due to the death of Eva Gabor (Bianca’s voice actress) in 1995. While Disney’s sentiments were understandable, this decision ignored the fact that actors are frequently recast, especially in the world of animation.
In cases such as this, the ideal solution is a tasteful belated production, with dedications to the original actors at the start (including not only Gabor, but also Bernard’s voice actor Bob Newhart). It would serve to celebrate their contributions while also satisfying longstanding fan interest. A properly executed revival does not serve as a replacement, but rather as a grateful tribute.
Example E: Cultural Revolution
This television series was planned by the renowned British writer Dennis Potter, but was never produced due to his death in 1994. Potter’s literary and televisual legacy remains celebrated, and there is substantial public interest in this unproduced show. A perfect reconstruction may be impossible, but the ideal solution would entail an attempt to capture the cultural insight Potter intended to share, perhaps as a dramatization or an inspired-by project based on his notes.