Cyberpunk series that deserves continuation. New Deus Ex from Eidos Montreal was supposed to be a bridge between Mankind Divided and first installment
Studio Eidos Montreal earned the respect of fans of the cyberpunk genre with its hugely successful Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its sequel. The team was to work for two years on a new game under this banner.
The Deus Ex series had problems from the beginning. After developing the first two installments, the studio behind them, Ion Storm, disappeared from the industry. Later, Eidos Montreal took over the series, and although after the successful release of Human Revolution, it might have seemed that the brand was on its way to the top, the lower ratings and sales results of its sequel, Mankind Divided, prompted Square Enix to sideline it.
Nonetheless, the developers didn't give up and when they came under the wings of the new owner, the Swedish holding company Embracer Group, they were eager to start working on the fifth main installment of this cyberpunk series. In this article, I bring you closer to the fate of this enigmatic and unfortunately canceled project, which never received an official announcement.
The beginning of the fifth Deus Ex
The story of the fifth main Deus Ex begins back in November 2017, when Yosuke Matsuda, the head of Square Enix, stated in one of the interviews that his company still has plans related to the development of the brand. However, Matsuda was then hiding behind the lack of a sufficient workforce to entrust the Eidos Montreal team with the preparation of such a title. As he said:
We have never said anything about discontinuing that title but for some reason that's the rumour out on the market. (...) 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.
In late spring 2018, David Anfossi backed him up. The head of Eidos Montreal was then convinced that his team had not at all given up on the development of the Deus Ex series. Nonetheless, in his opinion, the brand needed a new opening, based on fresh ideas, which will ensure its future.
Months passed, and years, and there was not even a trace of the new Deus Ex. During this time, Eidos Montreal was involved in various activities, developing games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as assisting with Marvel’s Avengers and Perfect Dark.
In May 2022, a new hope was sparked in the hearts of fans when Eidos Montreal and the Deus Ex brand joined Embracer Group. The Swedish giant was then known for giving new life to old series, so it was possible that the fifth installment of the discussed series would soon begin to loom on the horizon.
Deus Ex under the wings of Embracer
Finally, in August 2022, unofficial reports appeared, according to which the first project developed by Eidos Montreal after being taken over by a new owner was supposed to be the fifth Deus Ex. According to Jeff Grubb, a journalist known for disclosing behind-the-scenes industry information, even though the project was in its early stages, its creators were enthusiastic, aiming to "accomplish what Cyberpunk 2077 couldn't."
When the brand came under the control of Eidos Montreal in September 2022, it seemed sure that another continuation would be created. November 2022 brought another batch of behind-the-scenes news, according to which the fifth Deus Ex was still in the early stages of production.
Meanwhile, the Embracer Group started to tremble at its core, and the restructuring it implemented, along with a wave of layoffs affecting many of its entities (some were closed, others sold), didn't promise anything good for Eidos Montreal's new venture.
The worries regarding the project's future, which could have arisen when reviewing the ongoing information about the company's situation, proved to be justified. In January 2024, unofficial news broke that the new Deus Ex, which had been in pre-production for about two years, was quietly canceled. As if that wasn't enough, the studio behind this project fell victim to layoffs, as a result of which 97 of its employees were set to lose their jobs.
What would the fifth Deus Ex be about?
Although the fifth game under the Deus Ex banner has never received an official announcement, we have occasionally received bits of information about it. Elias Toufexis, the actor portraying Adam Jensen, was the first to comment, stating that this game would probably not continue the storyline of the previous two installments. He drew such a conclusion based on the fact that over two years, during which the game was supposed to be in the pre-production phase, he didn't receive any contact from the developers.
Nevertheless, Toufexis might have been wrong, as Mark Cecere, the writer of Revolution and Mankind Divided, eventually contributed to the discussion. Even though he wasn't involved in the described project, he was still "in contact with people" from Eidos Montreal and didn't rule out returning to the team. In an interview for From Script To Life (via PCGamesN), he said that "Deus Ex 5" would take us on a journey to the city of Rabi'ah, controlled by the "wired;" a mention of it already appeared in the second part of Adam Jensen's adventures.
Interestingly, even though the main character was meant to continue following the Illuminati's trail, his chase would never be successful. As Cecere explained:
He can never catch up to the Illuminati. We know this. We know the Illuminati keeps going until 2050. So, what can happen? That was the question we were trying to answer at some point.
As the screenwriter argued, what Jensen would do in Deus Ex 5 would be continued in the first installment of the series.
And that's the tragedy of Jensen, is that he causes what happens after.
The third Deus Ex developed by Eidos Montreal could therefore serve as a bridge between Mankind Divided and the first installment of the series. Will we ever see the creation of such a game? Sam Cecere isn't sure about that.
"I would like to be there to finish it [the game], but so far there is no news [from Eidos Montreal]."
Nonetheless, Deus Ex fans are fine with long breaks. It's enough to say that almost eight years separated the second installment of the series, Invisible War, and the third part - Human Revolution. For now, however, fans of Adam Jensen and JC Denton's adventures have no choice but to believe that one day they will see a new game under this banner.
