After five years of post-launch support, Motion Twin and Evil Empire have today announced that there will be no new Dead Cells content added to the game after the release of Update 35.
The announcement was made via a post on the game's Steam page and on the Evil Empire Twitter account, with both teams thanking players for their support and promising that there are exciting things on the way in the future.
According to Motion Twin's Steam post, this decision was a preventative measure to ensure that the game could go out on a high (and last year's Return to Castlevania DLC is some high) rather than reaching a point where the gameplay loop felt stale. You can find the team's full statement on the matter below:
Update 35 for Dead Cells marks the end of our creative journey on the game. After an incredible 5-year collaboration in bringing additional content to Dead Cells' live-ops, Evil Empire will be pursuing new adventures and we can't wait to see what they come up next. This comes after much reflection, especially following the awesome success of the "Return to Castlevania" DLC last year. Our commitment to avoiding the "more of the same" trap and keeping Dead Cells fresh and original has led us to this point; as we've seen with other long-running series, it's crucial not to overextend and risk diminishing the unique charm that makes Dead Cells special to us all. This change explains the recent quiet period on updates, as concluding such a partnership required careful planning to ensure a smooth process for everyone, including the community. As always, we will of course continue to find solutions to make sure that all quality of life issues and bugs are properly fixed across all platforms to provide a worthy experience to all of you.
The post goes on to state that this is not the end for Dead Cells completely, with the recently revealed animated series and a board game on the way. Cryptically, Motion Twin also teased that the Beheaded will be "appearing in another world," so that's something to get thinking about. Oh god, please don't be a Fortnite collaboration...
As for Update 35, Motion Twin stated that it is still not up to release standard at the moment, but asked that we all keep an eye out for updates in the future.
All in all, while it is certainly sad to hear that there aren't any more Dead Cells newbies around the corner, you've got to applaud the quality of post-launch updates that we have received over the past five years. And hey, quitting while you're ahead seems like a pretty good shout.