Another year has passed, and Deus Ex fans are still waiting for a game that’s never coming. When voice actor Elias Toufexis, who brought protagonist Adam Jensen to life in Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, revealed his 2026 projects on social media, fans immediately started speculating about a possible Deus Ex announcement. His response was blunt and brutal: no Deus Ex because the people in charge are psychopaths.
The Comment That Broke the Internet
Toufexis posted about his upcoming work for 2026, showing Bungie’s Marathon and three projects under NDA. When fans asked about Deus Ex, he didn’t mince words. His tweet specifically called out the franchise owners as psychopaths, referring primarily to Embracer Group, the Swedish conglomerate that currently owns the rights through its acquisition of Eidos Montreal in 2022.
This isn’t the first time Toufexis has expressed frustration with how the series has been handled. Back in February 2024, he posted a heartfelt farewell to Adam Jensen after Bloomberg reported that Embracer had cancelled a Deus Ex game that had been in development for two years. At the time, he revealed he wasn’t even approached to return for that project, suggesting Jensen’s story was done. He called the video game industry a disaster zone after having three projects fall through in quick succession.
A Franchise Killed By Corporate Mismanagement
The death of Deus Ex has been a slow-motion train wreck spanning nearly a decade. To understand why fans and the voice actor are so frustrated, you need to understand the timeline of corporate incompetence that brought us here. It started with Square Enix, which acquired Eidos back when they still owned the IP. Despite Deus Ex: Human Revolution being critically acclaimed and selling well, Square Enix had unrealistic sales expectations for the 2016 sequel Mankind Divided.
Mankind Divided needed to sell around 3 million copies just to break even due to Square Enix’s massive marketing budget and development costs. The game was plagued by controversy before launch, including a disastrous Augment Your Pre-Order campaign that offered tiered rewards based on how many people pre-ordered. The backlash was so severe that Square Enix cancelled the promotion entirely. Post-launch, the game was criticized for aggressive microtransactions and a story that felt incomplete, ending on a cliffhanger that would never be resolved.
The Square Enix Era: Putting Dreams on Hold
When Mankind Divided underperformed commercially despite positive reviews, Square Enix made a calculated business decision that doomed the franchise. In January 2017, reports emerged that the publisher had placed Deus Ex on indefinite hiatus. Eidos Montreal was instead directed to work on Marvel properties, specifically partnering with Crystal Dynamics on an Avengers game and leading development on Guardians of the Galaxy.
Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda tried to soften the blow in interviews, claiming the series hadn’t been discontinued and that it remained a very important franchise. However, he admitted no Deus Ex game was in active development and that limited resources meant some titles have to wait their turn. Translation: we’re chasing Marvel money because Deus Ex wasn’t mainstream enough.
The irony is that both Marvel games failed to meet Square Enix’s expectations. Marvel’s Avengers became one of the biggest flops in recent gaming history, shutting down its live service components after hemorrhaging money. Guardians of the Galaxy was actually excellent but sold poorly due to brand fatigue from Avengers and lack of marketing support. Square Enix eventually sold off its entire Western studios division, including Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and the Deus Ex IP, to Embracer Group in 2022 for $300 million.
Enter Embracer: Making Things Worse
When Embracer acquired Eidos Montreal and the Deus Ex rights, fans allowed themselves a glimmer of hope. Maybe new ownership would greenlight the franchise revival that Square Enix refused to fund. For about two years, that seemed possible. Reports indicated that a new Deus Ex game entered pre-production in 2022, with Eidos Montreal quietly working on it alongside other projects.
Then everything fell apart spectacularly. In 2023, Embracer’s planned $2 billion investment deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund collapsed at the last minute. This sent the company into a tailspin of cost-cutting measures that devastated the gaming industry. Embracer immediately began shutting down studios, cancelling projects, and laying off thousands of employees across its massive portfolio of acquired companies.
The Final Blow
In January 2024, Bloomberg confirmed what many feared: Embracer had cancelled the Deus Ex game after two years of development. The project hadn’t been announced publicly and was scheduled to enter full production later that year. Instead, Eidos Montreal would focus on an original franchise. This was accompanied by another round of layoffs at the studio, with numerous talented developers losing their jobs.
Leaked documents from former Eidos Montreal developers revealed in December 2025 that yet another Deus Ex project had been quietly cancelled, suggesting the studio made multiple attempts to revive the franchise only to have executives pull the plug each time. According to insiders, Embracer viewed Deus Ex as too niche to justify the financial risk, especially after the mixed commercial performance of previous titles.
Most recently in December 2024, Eidos Montreal suffered another devastating round of layoffs affecting at least a dozen employees across multiple departments. The studio has essentially been reduced to a support operation, assisting other Embracer-owned studios rather than leading its own projects. This is the same team that created some of the most critically acclaimed immersive sims of the last 15 years, now relegated to helping out on other people’s games.
Why Mankind Divided Failed Commercially
To understand why executives keep abandoning Deus Ex, you need to understand why Mankind Divided underperformed despite being a genuinely good game. The marketing was atrocious, with many gamers not even realizing a sequel was coming until a month before release. Some thought the promotional materials were advertising DLC for Human Revolution rather than a full sequel because Adam Jensen looked identical.
The Augment Your Pre-Order fiasco generated massive negative press that overshadowed the actual game. Then the review embargo lifted and critics praised the gameplay while noting the story felt incomplete and rushed, ending abruptly on a cliffhanger. Post-launch microtransactions in a single-player game further soured public perception. By the time word-of-mouth started spreading about the quality of the actual gameplay, the damage was done.
Square Enix also released Mankind Divided at a terrible time, competing against juggernauts like Battlefield 1, Civilization VI, and the lead-up to holiday blockbusters. The game simply got buried in one of the most crowded release windows in gaming history. None of these problems were the fault of Eidos Montreal’s developers, who delivered an excellent cyberpunk immersive sim. It was corporate mismanagement from top to bottom.
What About the Remaster?
Aspyr Media is working on Deus Ex Remastered, bringing the original 2000 game to modern platforms. However, that project is also troubled. The initial reveal trailer in September 2025 was met with harsh criticism for its dated visuals that fans felt didn’t justify calling it a remaster. In December 2025, Aspyr indefinitely delayed the game from its February 5, 2026 release date, refunding all preorders and offering no new timeline.
The fact that they’re refunding preorders is particularly telling. Publishers typically only do this when a project is in serious trouble or facing potential cancellation. Even if Deus Ex Remastered eventually launches, it’s not the new mainline game that fans have been begging for since 2016.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will there ever be another Deus Ex game?
Realistically, no. Multiple attempts to greenlight a new game have been cancelled by executives who view the franchise as too niche. Eidos Montreal has been reduced to a support studio after multiple rounds of layoffs, and there’s no indication anyone at Embracer wants to fund a new entry.
Why did Elias Toufexis call the franchise owners psychopaths?
Toufexis used that term to describe Embracer Group’s handling of the franchise and the wider industry. Embracer acquired multiple studios and IPs, then cancelled projects and laid off thousands of employees after an investment deal fell through, devastating careers and franchises in the process.
What happened to the cancelled Deus Ex game?
A new Deus Ex game was in development at Eidos Montreal for approximately two years before Embracer cancelled it in January 2024. The project hadn’t been announced publicly and reportedly didn’t feature Adam Jensen. Leaked documents suggest there may have been multiple cancelled attempts.
Why did Deus Ex: Mankind Divided underperform?
Multiple factors contributed: disastrous pre-launch marketing including the Augment Your Pre-Order controversy, poor release timing against major competitors, post-launch microtransaction criticism, an incomplete-feeling story, and Square Enix’s unrealistically high sales expectations requiring 3 million copies sold just to break even.
Who currently owns the Deus Ex rights?
Embracer Group owns the Deus Ex intellectual property after acquiring Eidos Montreal and other Square Enix Western studios in 2022 for $300 million. However, the IP appears to be in limbo with no active development.
Is Eidos Montreal still making games?
Eidos Montreal has been reduced to primarily a support studio after suffering multiple rounds of layoffs throughout 2024 and 2025. The studio that once led development on Deus Ex and Guardians of the Galaxy now mainly assists other Embracer-owned studios on their projects.
What about the Deus Ex Remastered from Aspyr?
Deus Ex Remastered was announced for February 5, 2026 but has been indefinitely delayed after negative fan reaction to the reveal trailer. Aspyr is refunding all preorders, which suggests the project is in serious trouble and may face cancellation.
A Cautionary Tale
The death of Deus Ex represents everything wrong with modern gaming’s corporate consolidation. You have a critically acclaimed franchise with a dedicated fanbase that Square Enix abandoned because it wasn’t as profitable as they hoped Marvel games would be. Then Embracer bought it as part of a shopping spree funded by a massive investment deal that collapsed, leading to the entire operation being dismantled for parts. At no point did anyone in a position of power seem to care about the actual games, the developers who made them, or the fans who loved them. Executives viewed Deus Ex purely as a financial asset to be exploited or discarded based on spreadsheet projections.
Elias Toufexis calling these people psychopaths might sound harsh, but look at the evidence. Embracer’s leadership destroyed studios, ended careers, and killed beloved franchises because they gambled on an investment deal and lost. The people who made those decisions faced no consequences while thousands of developers lost their jobs and multiple franchises died. That’s not hyperbole, that’s documented reality. Deus Ex won’t be getting a new game because the people controlling its fate prioritize quarterly earnings over creative legacy. The franchise that asked players to consider corporate power and technological ethics ended up killed by exactly the kind of soulless corporate machinations it warned about. The irony would be poetic if it wasn’t so depressing.