The canceled game «The Invincible Iron Man» was shown 21 years later

After 21 years, the canceled game «The Invincible Iron Man», which was developed in 2003, has appeared online thanks to one of its former developers. Retired programmer Kevin Edwards, a former employee of GenePool Software, shared screenshots and a video of the game.

The Invincible Iron Man is the working title of the game, which, according to Edwards, was «mothballed by Activision» as GenePool studio was closed. The development began after the completion of X2: Wolverine’s Revenge, which was released on PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC and Mac in 2003. Unfortunately, the Iron Man game was never completed.

Here’s a game I worked on at Genepool Software after we finished “X-Men 2: Wolverine’s Revenge”. AFAIK this is the first time the game has been shown. “The Invincible Ironman” ( working title, 2003 ) was canned by Activision and our studio was shutdown. xemu is pretty impressive! pic.twitter.com/2CNpbI2Jyj

— Kevin Edwards ( Retro Videogame development ) (@KevEdwardsRetro) July 2, 2024

«We were about five to six months into the project with a completely new engine for PC, Xbox, and PS2,» Edwards says.

But why was the game canceled? The developer says that the team never got to hear the exact reason, but he notes: «The movie deadline was too long, or maybe they didn’t think the game was good enough and didn’t want to fund it. Or maybe some other developer was ready to take over».

Here’s a teaser video of “The Invincible Ironman” for the original XBox console from 2003 that I worked on at Genepool Software. I’m still getting my head around the controls again and will post some proper gameplay footage in the next couple of days. pic.twitter.com/84IL5igN2d

— Kevin Edwards ( Retro Videogame development ) (@KevEdwardsRetro) July 3, 2024

It’s unclear which delayed movie Edwards is referring to, though it’s probably the animated Iron Man movie with the exact same title released in 2007. It is worth noting that the GBA game, which again has the same title, was launched in late 2002. Interestingly, it was also published by Activision, but it was developed by Torus Games.

Kevin Edwards is planning to publish more footage of The Invincible Iron Man gameplay over the next few days.

Source: GamesRadar