Since its launch in 2017 in early access, then the release of version 1.0 in 2018, Dead Cells has been actively supported. Last year, the famous roguelite welcomed a fairly substantial DLC on the theme of Castlevania and this year is preparing to deploy its final update. However, the discontinuation of the Dead Cells follow-up is absolutely not to the taste of the studio founder, who left Motion Twin in 2020 to form Deepnight Games.
The end of the Dead Cells follow-up infuriates the studio founder, who gives a different story
In 2019, members of Motion Twin created a new studio called Evil Empire to continue supporting Dead Cells through updates. However, Motion Twin recently announced that update 35, which will be the last, will also mark the end of the five years of collaboration between the studio and Evil Empire.
After an incredible five-year collaboration to bring additional content to Dead Cells, Evil Empire will continue its new adventures, and we can't wait to see what they come up with.
This decision, however, is not to the taste of Sébastien Benard, the founder of Motion Twin who worked for the studio from 2001 to 2020. PCGamesN indeed spotted on the Dead Cells Discord that a player sought to know Sébastien Benard's opinion on the situation, a question to which he responded harshly.
Since you asked me the question, I would say that [Motion Twin] made the worst asshole move imaginable against Dead Cells and [Evil Empire]. Having seen the situation behind the scene up close, I can honestly say I'm glad to no longer be a part of it. The official statement is total bullshit marketing, the way this situation happened is on a whole new level. I never imagined that my old co-op studio would turn out to be such greedy people. I wish the best to [Evil Empire] for the future, and I hope that the people who work there will survive this sudden economic shutdown.
Sébastien Benard did not remain on good terms with the studio. In a blog posted on the website of Deepnight in 2020, he explained that he had prototyped a dozen games, “but none have been validated to become a real Motion Twin game”.
Of course, I wasn't the only one creating prototypes, but nothing was promoted to an overall project.
As the months passed and nothing happened, my relationship with the team became more and more complicated. So complicated, in fact, that they ultimately led to my forced departure, as I was asked to leave in December 2019.
It remains to be seen whether we will learn that the end of support for Dead Cells is indeed the result of an “economic shutdown.” In any case, Dead Cells will give way to Windblown, an action rogue-like playable in cooperation. Its release is scheduled for 2024 in early access on Steam.