Dead Cells designer calls decision to end development "the worst imaginable asshole move"
"The official statement is total marketing bullshit."
Former lead designer and developer on Dead Cells Sébastien Benard has called the decision to end development on the game "the worst imaginable asshole move" by publisher Motion Twin.
Benard worked on Dead Cells until late 2019, before establishing his own one-man studio called Deepnight. Now, he's posted his thoughts on Dead Cells' development being ended on the game's Discord server, after being asked for his opinion (as spotted by PCGamesN).
After a quick check by Eurogamer, Benard's posts no longer seem to be available on the server at the time of writing, though many users are still discussing what he wrote.
As reported, here is Benard's full response: "Since you're asking me, I'd just say [Motion Twin] did the worst imaginable asshole move against Dead Cells and [Evil Empire]. Having seen first hand the actual situation behind the scene, I can honestly say I'm glad to not be part of this anymore. The official statement is total marketing bullshit, the way this situation happened is on a whole different level. I never imagined my former co-op studio would turn out to be such greedy people. I wish the absolute best to [Evil Empire] for their next things, and hope people working there will survive this sudden economic cut."
Evil Empire is an internal studio at Motion Twin which was spun-off following the success of Dead Cells, staffed by a number of developers keen to continue working on the game. Although development is handled by Evil Empire, Motion Twin has a say in decisions regarding the game.
It's unclear what projects Evil Empire will be working on following the release of Dead Cell's final free update, The End is Near. Motion Twin announced Windblown, an action roguelite, at The Game Awards last December, which will launch in early access sometime this year.