Celeste developer Extremely Ok Games has announced that its next project, Earthblade, has been canceled. The decision was made back in December, but the the team said it needed to process the news before announcing it publicly.
Director Maddy Thorson provided more details in a final blog post. One of the main reasons for the cancelation revolved around disagreements over the Celeste IP rights, the details of which the studio has decided not to disclose. While a resolution was reached, founding member Pedro Medeiros parted ways with Earthblade in November and is now working on his own game, Neverway.
Medeiros’s departure led Thorson and programmer Noel Berry to reevaluate Earthblade, which was still promising but not as far along considering its long development period.
“Celeste’s success applied pressure on us to deliver something bigger and better with Earthblade, and that pressure is a large part of why working on it has become so exhausting,” Thorson explained. “Pedro isn’t to blame for this–in fact the split with him has given us the clarity to see that we have lost our way, and the opportunity to admit defeat. I feel many ways about it, but one big feeling is undoubtedly relief.”
The situation has caused other developers on Earthblade to leave as well, with both Thorson and Berry now working on smaller scale projects and prototyping again. Thorson admitted that scaling the team up after Celeste’s success was a failure, but is hopeful that the studio will regain its footing and learn lessons from Earthblade’s development.
Earthblade was first revealed back in 2021, and was slated for a 2024 release. However, it was delayed out of that year with no further updates until now.