We now have a new rumor that could be hinting at what Eidos Montreal has planned for the future of Deus Ex.
As shared on reddit, a new job opening at Eidos Montreal has appeared on Jobvite, to be based on their home city of Montreal, Quebec.
Under the job opening, they have these listed:
“Even better if you have
- A hands-on knowledge of technical challenges and approaches related to Player Progression and Game Economy implementation;
- Knowledge of Unreal Engine 5, including experience with Blueprint and data tables;
- Has experience in working on COOP games;
- Good analysis & reverse engineering capacity;
- Desire to have ownership and structure efficiently the subjects you work on;
- Good versatility to tackle a variety of tasks and collaborate with various teams at the same time;
- Good understanding of accessibility in game design”
As expected, the listing does not name Deus Ex, or any other upcoming Eidos Montreal projects. Our reddit source points to Jason Schreier confirming that a Deus Ex game is in the works.
In fact, we had previously reported that Eidos Montreal was eager to reexplore Deus Ex, according to Jeff Grubb, all the way back in August of last year.
Deus Ex’s development history has been sporadic, but the most recent projects are what’s relevant here. The success of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, particularly after its 2013 Director’s Cut edition, raised expectations that the franchise could now stick around as a regular franchise.
However, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided just as immediately put a hold on those plans. Fans may remember Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, first released in 2016, being critically well received and a modest success. However, under Square Enix, who was then owner of Eidos Montreal and the Deus Ex franchise, those same sales were considered disappointing.
The situation was apparently bad enough that Square Enix had to publicly state they were not cancelling the Deus Ex game series, and that they would revisit the franchise when they were inclined to do so.
Now that Eidos Montreal is under new management at Embracer Group, and has more direct control of their projects, they have an opportunity for a fresh start on the franchise.
It must be said that Embracer stated last February that Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal combined have five major projects planned until 2028. So there is a possibility this game isn’t Deus Ex. For example, Jason Schreier revealed that Eidos Montreal is working with Microsoft on the Fable remake, and they have an entirely new IP in production as well.
That new IP could be a live service game, suited for co-op gameplay and Unreal Engine 5 for long term support. But the next Deus Ex could also be a live service game too. The market simply isn’t there for offline co-op unless you’re making games for Nintendo. On top of that, the money for online games is on live service right now.
It may be too early to make this call in any case, but it’s certainly a possibility. Keep reading GameRanx for future Eidos Montreal game updates.