Square-Enix hints at a new sequel in the works, with Deus Ex: Human Defiance

2012 was not a great year for Square-Enix’s console game business. The calendar year started strong thanks to swift sales of Final Fantasy XIII-2, but investors don’t care about games that come out in January! The fiscal year ends in March, and Square’s big guns from March 2012 to December, namely Sleeping Dogs and Hitman: Absolution, didn’t hit the mark. Square-Enix reported a $61 million loss for the period. If only it were still 2011 when Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out and “favorably grew sales of packaged software” as the earnings report at the time put it. Looks like Square’s going back to the cybernetic well, as a trademark for a new Deus Ex game appeared online on Tuesday.

Square-Enix registered a trademark for Deus Ex: Human Defiance on Tuesday in the UK, a trademark that covers first and foremost “computer games software,” but also “printed matter” like books and “entertainment services.”

 Given how the Eidos Montreal-made game helped Square-Enix weather some tumultuous financial times two years back, it’s no wonder the company is interested in continuing the series. Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada said as much in November 2011, confirming that Deus Ex was one of ten core intellectual properties that would become franchises for the company. There is also a Deus Ex: Human Revolution movie in the works that is currently being helmed by horror director Scott Derrickson. 

Games industry hawk Superannuation also spotted a number of job postings last summer for a “semi open-world action adventure title that responds to player choice and interaction” developed by a “major Canadian company.” Since Eidos Montreal has already discussed its work on Thief 4, another semi-open world game that responds to choice, Superannuation pegged this as a sign that Deus Ex 4 was in active development.

There are other possibilities, though. Straight Right games, the Australian studio behind the Wii U port of Mass Effect 3, confirmed in October that it’s working on a port of a major franchise from Square-Enix for Nintendo’s console. Studio head Tom Crago said that it was a 2013 title from Square-Enix. With Tomb Raider out next week and no word of a Wii U port in sight, it could be an updated version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution given a fancy new name, possibly even upgraded for new consoles like PlayStation 4.

There’s another possibility as well. With the initials “HD” in the subtitle, Human Defiance could always be an HD remake of the 2000 original Deus Ex.

Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. His work has appeared in The AV Club, Salon, Edge, and many others. He is patiently waiting for Namco to finish Klonoa 3.

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Is Kojima Productions already hiring for another sequel after Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes?

Kojima Productions is always secretive about what it’s working on. At the moment, it’s not fully clear if the company is working on one Metal Gear game or two. There is Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, the new game Hideo Kojima debuted in summer 2012 that is already in production. Then there’s The Phantom Pain, a mysterious game shown in a trailer at December’s Spike Video Game Awards which was barely masked as the work of Kojima Productions. Are they the same game? Two separate games? Hideo Kojima works in mysterious ways. Based on a huge number of new job listings with Kojima productions, though, it’s clear that gamers won’t be playing either game any time soon.

Kojima Productions posted twelve job listings for senior creative positions with Kojima Productions Los Angeles. The postings include: Senior Game Level Designer, Game Designer, Concept Artist, Senior Character Artist, and many others.

All postings were put online ahead of the 2013 Game Developers Conference where Kojima Productions will be recruiting. These positions are all for a new Metal Gear title.

“Project engineers for the latest Metal Gear Solid targeted for high-end consoles and PC” as well as “engineers to help develop next-gen game engine technology for use with the ‘FOX Engine’” are the primary tasks of all these new employees.

The “next Metal Gear Solid” may not refer to Ground Zeroes. When he debuted the game last summer, Kojima emphasized that that game was not just intended for the next Xbox and PlayStation 4, but also the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Since an actual gameplay demo of Ground Zeroes was demonstrated at the time and The Phantom Pain was shown later in a mercurial way, it’s highly possible that the latter game is in fact a separate product entirely that is still only in the concept phase of development. Hence the need for high-level artists for every facet of the game.

Though the listings don’t betray any other details about Kojima’s future games, we at least know that the Metal Gear Solid in question will include online multiplayer. One of the openings is for a Senior Multiplayer Game Designer who has at least four years of experience designing multiplayer modes for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games. The two most recent Metal Gear Solid games, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, both experimented in multiplayer modes but neither found large audiences.

Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. His work has appeared in The AV Club, Salon, Edge, and many others. He is patiently waiting for Namco to finish Klonoa 3.

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