‘Deus Ex’ Isn’t Dead Despite ‘Mankind Divided’s’ Underwhelming Sales

Good news “Deus Ex” fans! The action role-playing stealth video game franchise isn’t dead. In fact, Square Enix has confirmed that it still has plans for new games though things are a bit complicated at the moment.

In a recent interview with Gameindustry.biz, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Mastuda put to rest the rumor that the “Deus Ex” franchise has been discontinued following the disappointing sales of last year’s “Mankind Divided.” “We have never said anything about discontinued that title but for some reason that’s the rumor out on the market,” Matsuda said.

The CEO then admitted that the “Deus Ex” franchise is “very important” to them. He also confirmed that they are in the process of “internally discussing and exploring” what they want for the next installment in the series. Nevertheless, it’s way to early to tell as to when will this new entry could come out. Square Enix is after all preoccupied with other big titles at the moment.

“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 said. “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.”

As per previous reports, Eidos Montreal is working on three projects for the next couple of years. The developer is making a new “Tom Raider” game and it will also be involved in Crystal Dynamics’ “Marvel Avengers” game. As for the third project, it was found out that it’s another Marvel game. Some sources believe that it could be a “Guardians of the Galaxy” game.

Earlier this year, Eurogamer revealed that Square Enix had apparently put the “Deus Ex” franchise on hiatus as a result of the underwhelming response to “Mankind Divided.” The outlet even stated that the 2016 installment failed to generate the much needed sales to make the series grow into a mainstream franchise.

It wasn’t just the hiatus the broke the hearts of fans though. Prior its August 2016 release, Square Enix had already told players that it was planning to create an “ongoing, expanding and connected game world built across a generation of core [‘Deus Ex’] games.” Part of the plan was a third and concluding entry to the narrative arc that the company started in “Human Revolution” in 2011. Such plans never materialized, and Square Enix has since been mum on the future of the franchise.

Whatever the outcome of the ongoing discussions, it’s still very clear that fans shouldn’t expect a new “Deus Ex” game to come out next year. From the looks of things, it would take some time before Eidos Montreal could start developing a new title for the franchise, considering that it currently appears to be devoted to Marvel, which happens to be one of the biggest brands in the entertainment scene at present.