Sources detail the troubled development of Tencent's ambitious, GTA-like game Last Sentinel, which has burned hundreds of millions of dollars over six years (Jason Schreier/Bloomberg)

The scale of investment and timeline without a shippable product illustrates the risk profile of large-scale game development, where technical and organizational challenges can compound over years. For engineers, it's a case study in how ambitious scope and unclear direction can drain resources on a single project.