Dead Cells Announces Closure of Development

Dead Cells has been around for what seems like forever — it arrived at the peak of roguelike adventures and maintained its relevant status for years after. Even five years after release, the lovable 2D soulslite title kept achieving new peaks of concurrent players (which it broke just 11 months ago once again). However, five years of support and five DLC packs later, it's time that we bid farewell.

Update 35 has been in the Beta branch for a while, and in this newest announcement, the team has shared that once that has been fully released, it will be the end of the Dead Cells development journey, with no new content updates coming. Motion Twin (the developer and publisher for the game) and Evil Empire will be splitting ways as the latter (developer of the DLC, including the highly successful Return to Castlevania) sets off on a new adventure.

Motion Twin also cites the fear of becoming samey and repetitive with their beloved title as a reason to end development. With five years of new content, they fear the risk of becoming mundane and falling into diminishing their title's charm. The closure of Dead Cells and the parting of the two companies are the reasons why the game's updates have been radio silent for a while, as both teams worked together to make the transition smooth.

Just because Dead Cells is closing down full development, however, doesn't mean that there isn't a possibility for more content set in the universe. From the animated series and the board game being teased, the Beheaded himself might make an appearance in another world, as per Motion Twin's words.

Look forward to all sorts of updates regarding more things set in the Dead Cells universe. The possibility for a sequel isn't off the table, but Motion Twins has already announced their newest upcoming title, Windblown, just last year, which will deviate from Dead Cells' 2D world and entered 3D after having chugged 312 energy drinks (their words, not ours).