Earlier this year, Jody considered the uncertain future of games like Deus Ex and Dishonored in the wake of poor sales. Within, Eidos Montreal said it was “not quite ready” to answer questions on why the former had underperformed, nor would it commit to the possibility of new Deus Ex games down the line.
In conversation with gamesindustry.biz, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda has all but confirmed Deus Ex will live on—despite other projects taking priority at present. Square Enix has published the series since 2011’s Human Revolution.
“We have never said anything about discontinuing that title but for some reason that’s the rumour out on the market,” Matsuda tells GI.biz. “What I can say is Eidos Montreal has always developed Deus Ex, and the issue is we do not have limitless resources. We have several big titles that we work with and that’s partly a factor in what our line-up looks like.”
Matsuda adds: “Of course, 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. The reason there isn’t a Deus Ex right now is just a product of our development line-up because there are other titles we are working on.”
Matsuda recently spoke in praise of Hitman developer IO Interactive, saying that while Square Enix could no longer invest in the series, he was sure “it wouldn’t be Hitman unless made by IO”. Somewhat similarly, Matsuda describes Deus Ex as a “very important franchise” before stating he and his colleagues are “already internally discussing and exploring what we want do with the next instalment of it.”
Gamesindustry.biz’s interview with Matsuda is worth reading in full—find it in this direction.