The Canceled Dirty Harry Video Game We'll Never Get To Play

The Dirty Harry movie franchise is one of cinema's most fondly-remembered, often for its titular character and one-liners such as, "Go ahead. Make my day." At one point, however, Dirty Harry was going to get a third-person shooter game, which collapsed due to development issues.

As explained by canceled games archive Unseen 64, it wasn't all that long ago that gamers came very close to playing a new Dirty Harry video game, titled Dirty Harry Extreme. In the mid-2000s, the project's development began on the cusp of the then-next generation of consoles. It was in development by Sensory Sweep for Nintendo DS, PS2, and Wii, as well as by The Collective for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. The Collective had been expecting lifelike graphics from the PS3 and Xbox 360, but had to scale back details once they received development kits that didn't meet expectations.

Dirty Harry lead actor Clint Eastwood, as well as his studio Malpaso Productions, were deeply involved with the game. Eastwood was reportedly determined to see it through, but the whole project fell apart.

Since a trailer was released for the game and development continued on for some time, the game's sudden cancellation came as a surprise to the developers. Warner Bros. was unimpressed with both Sensory Sweep and The Collective's iterations of the game. Eventually, the project was quietly canceled, with one source telling Unseen64 that WB felt the game "wasn't very good."

Like the $1 million cancelled Lord of the Rings game, it is somewhat disappointing that gamers never got to see the final product of Dirty Harry Extreme. As an adaptation of a well-beloved franchise and at the beginning of a renaissance for licensed games, Dirty Harry Extreme could have led that movement before Batman: Arkham Asylum stepped in and made those types of games viable again. Fans will just have to settle for the Dirty Harry films, which are available to watch in various formats for newcomers to the series and hardcore fans alike.