r/UnreleasedGames

saw that someone posted about this on the Subreddit a few years ago, so i figured it's worth sharing here.

the two planned chapters were uploaded to Partnernet, Microsoft's internal developer network, and were posted publicly as part of an Obscure Gamers prototype release.

• ["Out of Gas"](https://hiddenpalace.org/Hellboy:_The_Science_of_Evil_(DLC_Out_of_Gas_prototype\)) {a standalone bonus chapter starring Hellboy}
• ["Disposable Army"](https://hiddenpalace.org/Hellboy:_The_Science_of_Evil_(DLC_Disposable_Army_prototype\)) {this is the Lobster Johnson content, which adds an extra chapter and also allows you to play as him in Co-Op}

the main source of the content's notoriety was that there were four achievements in the base game tied to it, which were impossible to unlock as a result of the content never releasing. installing these packages {requires BadUpdate or a modchip on real hardware} actually makes them officially accessible for the first time.

i was also able to get in contact with Kev Harrison, one of the developers, who confirmed the content was likely unreleased due to the publisher screwing them over. delaying the release of the title for several months so it launched closer to Hellboy II: The Golden Army. {indeed the final build date according to the game's executable was October 24, 2007. over eight months prior to launch} >The DLC was never released as Konami had two different offices that were being amalgamated into one. The side of Konami we were working with closed and all the projects including Hellboy were shifted to the one office. Hellboy then sat on a shelf for approximately a year before it was released, coinciding with the release of the Hellboy 2 movie. I had two games I'd worked on come out in the same month the following year, Hellboy and Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels which is an extremely rare occurrence.

and some further details from production assistant Rich Foster >The dev cycle for Hellboy was just over 2 years I believe (from the point I joined at least), and for the majority of that time we had been working closely with Konami US, through weekly/bi-weekly video calls, frequent emails, etc, they even came out to the studio on a number of occasions. Now, I don't know the specifics around exactly what happened at Konami, but towards the end of Hellboy, our primary contacts were let go/replaced with an individual from another branch at Konami, who just wanted to get the game out of the door as fast as possible. As such, it was Konami who decided not to release the DLC levels, even though for the most part, they were complete.

i just made a video providing a full overview on what's included in the downloadable content, as well as giving a likely explanation on why the achievements for it ended up as part of the base game's list. feel free to watch it if you're interested.