Originally due to be released for Amiga, Genesis, and Sega CD platforms, the game was canceled by its publisher, Psygnosis, in 1994 after it had been almost finished.

[2][3] With the then-upcoming release of the 32-bit PlayStation console, Psygnosis expected sales for 16-bit Sega Genesis games, including Hardcore, to wane.

[3] Andreas Axelsson and Olof Gustafsson, two of DICE's founders, presented a demo of the game at the 2010 Datastorm exposition for Commodore enthusiast.

The company's team of nine people, including DICE co-founder Fredrik Liljegren and other former DICE employees, used an original Sega Genesis development kit to finish the game's production, porting the game to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, two modern systems, afterwards.

[4] Ultracore was first released as part of the Mega Sg, an aftermarket console for Sega Genesis games developed by Analogue, on March 25, 2019.