It’s a known fact that in gaming, the hardest thing is keeping a franchise relevant. Yes, it’s easy to look at certain franchises and think “they make it look easy!” but there are always exceptions to the rule. For Square Enix, one of their most popular franchises is the Deus Ex series, which made a big comeback of sorts in recent years with two games via Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. Yet, despite acclaim and decent sales, the series has been “stopped”, and even rumored to be dead. But, that’s not what Square Enix is saying.
“We have never said anything about discontinuing that title but for some reason that’s the rumor out on the market,” Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda told GamesIndustry.biz
He further notes that the reason for the lack of a new game isn’t because of desire, but because of resources. And not financial ones either, but rather, the need to focus developers on certain games before others can be made.
“It would be ideal if we could work on all of them all of the time, but the fact of the matter is some titles have to wait their turn.”
As if that wasn’t enough to satisfy curiosity, he went even further into the mindset of Square Enix currently and stated that Deus is “very important” to the publisher, and stated that the next game in the series is already in primary development via discussions on what it should be. So, whenever the time arises for it to come back, chances are, it will come back in a big way.
Ironic as it sounds, this is a part of the video game industry, sometimes big name franchises and titles have to be pushed back so that others can be made. And if Square Enix is holding back Eidos so that they can work on another title, you know it must be worthwhile.
