After seven years of continued support, the 35th and final update, The End is Near, has come to Dead Cells.
Primarily an expansion on the curse mechanic, the update adds new mobs, weapons, mutations, biome effects, and many player customisation options. Developers Motion Twin and Evil Empire have taken to social media to thank the game’s community for their continued support, which must be bittersweet for fans as whilst there will still be bug and issue fixes for the game this is the end of its developmental life cycle.
Motion Twin are moving on to the roguelite Windblown, and Evil Empire have recently released The Rogue Prince of Persia. It’s not over for Dead Cells in every way, however, as Motion Twin have stated that The Beheaded, the game’s protagonist, will continue to feature in other work.
But not everybody will be looking back fondly. One such person is Dead Cells’ original designer, Sébastien Benard, who previously called Motion Twin’s decision to end the game’s development (as he claims) “the worst imaginable asshole move against Dead Cells and Evil Empire.” For more context, you can read Benard’s full statement here (thanks PCGamesN and Eurogamer).