When it comes to old PlayStation classics, Ape Escape is certainly up there in terms of fan demand for a revival. The series hasn't had a mainline instalment since 2006's Ape Escape 3 and the most recent game it had was a PlayStation Move tie-in from 2011.
With 2019 marking the series' 20th anniversary, fans expected some sort of new game would be unveiled as part of the celebrations, and there appeared to be some evidence which suggested that would be the case, with a new Twitter account all about said anniversary being set up in June 2019.
Once we entered 2020, the account seemed to tease that an Ape Escape announcement would be coming soon, be it a sequel, a re-release, or a remake. Sadly, it appears that those dreams may have been dashed, as it has been discovered that the account is shutting down.
A series of Tweets were posted a couple of days ago, with the first showing a picture of one of the titular apes leaving an office building, accompanied by the following message, roughly translated from Japanese:
"I enjoyed my 20th anniversary... I was really happy to see everyone after a long time, but it seems like it's time to leave."
The second Tweet even has some thinking that maybe a new Ape Escape project was in the works but has been canceled, with the account expressing 'regret'
"Thank you for celebrating the 20th anniversary. There are things I could and couldn't do in the last year, but I have some regrets... I'll escape until the day when I'll get someday."
It should be noted that this just a theory and there is no official word on whether a new project was planned or not, though a quick glance at the replies shows that a lot of fans fully expected to see something from the series. This also doesn't necessarily confirm that Ape Escape will never return, though.
With other classic PlayStation icons like Crash Bandicoot seeing a revival on modern hardware, there is always hope that Ape Escape will receive similar treatment but this news does make it seem less and less likely.
Source: Press Start