Deus Ex - Third Game in Series Announced

[magerette]

There is very little information on what's planned for this game as yet, so it may not turn out to be an appropriate game for RPGWatch coverage, but Shack News reports that Eidos Studios today announced officially the third game in the Deus Ex series:

Eidos has announced the long-awaited third entry in the Deus Ex franchise. The game is being developed at the company's Montreal studio for unspecified consoles, though PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 editions are likely.
The game is currently at an extremely early stage. General studio manager Stephane D'Astous told Gamasutra that the team just received approval for the title's proof of concept. The team will be allotted up to two years for development, suggesting the game is targeted for holiday 2009 release...The existence of the title was suggested in an Eidos interview earlier this year...
...Deus Ex creator Warren Spector, who was also responsible for System Shock 2, is not likely to be involved with the project.

There's a bit more info, primarily on team and studio setup, here at Gamasutra. More information.

 

[doctor_kaz]

Only two years for development? Considering what we expect for a Deus Ex game, and considering how long development cycles are nowadays that doesn't sound encouraging. I'll keep my eyes on this, but my expectations are about as low as they can be right now.

 

[txa1265]

Only two years for development? Considering what we expect for a Deus Ex game, and considering how long development cycles are nowadays that doesn't sound encouraging. I'll keep my eyes on this, but my expectations are about as low as they can be right now.

But it is a 'Holiday 2009' expected release, meaning ~4 or more years total, which is in line with most games.

 

[r3dshift]

Damn, when I read such announcements, I can never help but think whether I'm gonna live long enough to see a release? I'd definitely love to see the Vampire MMO for a change (as I hate MMOs in general), but who knows what happens tomorrow? News like this is utterly depressing, IMO.

 

[Keldryn]

That's a production cycle of two years -- where they actually have an entire team working on the game. By this time, it's easily spent a year or more in pre-production with a handful of designers and concept artists.

 

[Dez]

Well atleast the starting point is pretty low this time. It doesn't require much effort to beat dx2.

 

[Crolug]

Why the hell we would want another Deus Ex? We got Oblivion for christ's sake... How could one ask for more?

 

[Dez]

You shall have no other gods than Benthesa

 

[lanael]

"Warren Spector, who was also responsible for System Shock 2" : are you sure ?!

 

[magerette]

I think they're confused. In this bio on MobyGames Spector is only credited with work on the original System Shock.
Anybody have any better info?

 

[lanael]

The wikipedia page about Warren seems perfect to me :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spector

"451" anyone ?

 

[Acleacius]

eidos doesn't seem to care too much about PC gaming quality, so we have one negative at the very least and the limitation of consoles is pretty much set in stone due to lack of RAM.
On the official page where they are showing the trailer, the company bio only list managers not the actual developers doing the work or anyhting about them.

spector was only an outside producer on SS1 and nothing to do with SS2.

I read a post on Blue's about some guy thinking it would be good to get spector back to do the story again, of course spector didn't write the DX story, amazing how everyone is always giving him credit for things other people did.

 

[Reyla]

I hope it resembles Deus Ex rather than Deus Ex 2. They were completely different games despite the lineage of title.

 

[curiously undead]

Acleacius why do you say eidos cares little about pc gaming quality? of all the big publishers i would say they have produced not only the most solid games in the past and in the past year or two have gotten over a past slump. nearly all their games are released on the pc and most are very well configured and optimized. the genres that the games are in can be attributed i think to the sometimes console feel of the games. in the past year i've played 2 tomb raiders, blood money, rogue trooper, battle stations midway, and just cause: all which were at the very least enjoyable and nearly bug free games. none of them are really A games but that's alright to me since their are few that are and i'd much rather play a horde of solid b games than a bunch of hit and miss ones. all of those i payed about $20 for each and they were more than worth the money. eidos has released some questionable games as well but i'd take them over ea, atari and probably over 2k and thq and ubisoft as well.

 

[JDR13]

Warren Spector was not just an outside producer for System Shock, he was the producer, and is generally regarded as being one of the main contributors in the creation of that title.

 

[abbaon]

Yesterday, I'd have sworn up and down that a sequel could disappoint me, but not offend me, and never anger me. My memory of the original work is inviolate; nothing you do can touch it. Today, this teaser makes a liar and a hypocrite of me. Today is a bad day.

 

[JDR13]

Why? The teaser doesn't even show any gameplay, I don't see what the big deal is.

 

[DArtagnan]

I don't hold out any great hope for this, but we all know that the laws of reality prevents it from being worse than the all-time low Invisible War.

That said, there's nothing encouraging about DE3 as of yet.

Spector lost it somewhere between the original DE and DE2. It wasn't just a case of having a few hundred bad days of development, as he REALLY believed that DE2 represented a step forwad. You could tell from interviews that he was in a state of total delusion, at least when you look back at the results.

Bring back the old Blue Sky/Looking Glass.... Nothing has surpassed what they did for the industry as of yet.

 

[Majnun]

Well, I'm about as sure as you can be that it will be nowhere near as good/deep/smart as Deus Ex (the original). But I'm also pretty hopeful that it will be nowhere near as shallow/gouge my eyes out and lobotomize me/crappy as Deus Ex: Invisible War (which got good reviews from most sites!). I mean you'd have to try REAL hard to make a game with as much SUCK as DE:IW.

We have Bioshock now that proves that a game can be made for the current gen consoles and PC and still be a fantastic game in almost every way. Was it as good as Deus Ex? To me, no. But it was infinitely better than DE:IW. And it was painfully obvious that the main reason invisible war sucked so hard was that it was a direct port of the dumbed down/restrained due to power console version. With the current gen consoles they don't have that excuse anymore....the current gen consoles can make large levels with deep gameplay and not have the PC version feel limited at all if it's a direct port (which it will be).

So, now, if the game sucks balls it is for no other reason than they made a bad game...not because of any limitations due to the consoles that will be it's main development platform (don't kid yourself the PC version will be an afterthought as usual).

Also, the fact that Warren Spector is NOT involved is a GOOD thing. Considering how he was directly involved in creating the piece of crap that was DE:IW all the while spouting how great it was in the press just makes me wish he'd never have anything to do with making games again.

 

[Acleacius]

Acleacius why do you say eidos cares little about pc gaming quality?

Ok, maybe I am being unfair but that is how I see it at this point, of the games you listed I play Legend and Blood Money.
I found Legend very well done and fun but in a console way, it was clearly made with a console in mind, so maybe I wasn't clear.
I don't mean the game can't be good, but I don't think eidos will even make a PC game then scale it to consoles, which would increase the quality of BOTH formats.
As with Blood Money that also was clearly made with consoles in mind, well imo anyway, the controls are so clunky and unintuitive.
I hope that is clearer.

Warren Spector was not just an outside producer for System Shock, he was the producer,.....

We can solve this real quick, what's your definition of an outside producer then?
Any chance you would be willing to point me to a single article that's at least half way creditable which gives him credit as you say "main contributors"?
I am not sure many producers are credited with creating worlds, they are typically the Company Face and Money Men, but I will be glad to see your definition and at least semi creditable (meaning NOT opinion pieces) links.

In the past, here at the RPGWatch I have even posted wspector's resume and not even he takes credit for the things you give him credit for.