Earlier this year, it was widely reported that Square Enix had quietly suspended the future development of the Deus Ex franchise. According to these reports, the publisher had elected to put the series on hiatus as part of their plan to focus on the development of other properties.
Now, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda is stepping in to contradict those claims.
“We have never said anything about discontinuing that title but for some reason that’s the rumour out on the market,” said Matsuda in an interview with gamesindustry.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.”
While Matsuda shoots down the notion that the franchise has been completely abandoned, he does clarify that franchise fans do need to understand the practicalities of the situation from Square Enix’s standpoint.
“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,” said Matsuda. “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.”
That being said, Matsuda added that top Square Enix representatives are “already internally discussing and exploring what we want to do with the next installment of it [Deus Ex].”
It seems that Deus Ex fans shouldn’t expect to hear any official news regarding a new franchise installment within the next business year or so. Matsuda’s comments seem to indicate that the publisher’s immediate budget and development schedule are already devoted to other projects. Said projects may seemingly include the previously rumored game based on Guardians of the Galaxy.
Still, it’s encouraging to know that there may be more Deus Ex games in the future.