10 Times Publishers Screwed Over A Video Game

Divided proved to be a very fitting subtitle here.

With Deus Ex: Human Revolution rebooting the series back to popularity, developers Eidos Montreal had ambitious ideas for the follow up. In the end, this meant the five years it took between Human Revolution and Mankind Divided was nowhere near enough.

Though the publishing issues don’t reflect as starkly on the actual gameplay here, from a narrative perspective they’re glaring. Publishers Square Enix, concerned that the wait between Mankind Divided and the sequel would be even longer, decided to lop of some of the later story and save it for next time.

This led to what was supposed to be a relatively open world being hugely restrictive in scope, while the narrative was a slow burn which finally ramped up into something good, then just stopped completely. Even without knowing the backstory, it was obvious something had gone wrong.

In the end, low sales and Eidos Montreal being moved onto the upcoming Avengers game meant that second half of the project never saw the light of day. It’s tempting to say they got what they deserved, but then it was the players who missed out more than anything else.