There’s no denying that plenty of Deus Ex fans were bitterly disappointed last year with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Because the truth is that many fans of the long-running franchise had hoped that this would be a stellar follow-up to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, one of 2011’s top games and arguably the best the series has offered to date.
But not only was Deus Ex: Mankind Divided not as great as fans were expecting, but it also sold poorly, being shunned by gamers worldwide who instead ended up playing other top-notch games such as Uncharted 4 and Overwatch in 2016.
So given Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s poor sales and lukewarm critical reception, it makes sense that some long-time fans of the series, which debuted way back in 2001, might have thought that Square Enix was putting the franchise on hold indefinitely.
Thankfully, though, this does not appear to be the case, and president Yosuke Matsuda, recently suggested that the Japanese publisher could be making more Deus Ex games in the future.
Deus Ex is a “very important franchise” for the Japanese publisher, Matsuda told gamesindustry.biz, adding that “we are already internally discussing and exploring what we want do with the next instalment of it.”.
For the time being, though, it looks like a new Deus Ex game could still be a long while off, especially taking into account Square Enix’s new partnership with Marvel. Actually, one of Square’s major goals going forward is making games based on Marvel’s fantasy universe and characters, with most of its western studios focused on this right now.
“I can say we’re dedicating considerable development resources to [the Marvel games], especially out of the Western studios”, said Matsuda.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that other Square Enix properties like Final Fantasy are not thriving (Final Fantasy XV has been a major hit no doubt), and the Japanese publisher has even tried to create a transmedia franchise based on it, putting out an animated movie and anime series before the game’s release. Square Enix had also planned to do this with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but that game’s poor sales meant those plans never came to fruition though.
Here’s hoping, though, that the next Deus Ex game is another sterling addition to the role-playing and cyberpunk genres when it’s released, and also that this happens sooner rather than later and that Deus Ex fans can return to the series’ sci-fi universe in the not so distant future.