Although it's hard to remember the game since it's only be discussed a handful of times since its announcement in the early months of 2013, Capcom's ill-fated co-op dungeon crawler, Deep Down, has lacked any new updates for a long while now. Announced at a PlayStation Meeting to showcase the company’s new “Panta Rhei” game engine built for next-generation hardware, it turns out the lack of information since the event could be for a good reason.
Speaking with Eurogamer in a recent interview, producer of the Street Fighter series and Deep Down, Yoshinori Ono, was asked about what happened to the game. Rather surprisingly, he responded, "the original team is clearly no longer together at this point," before following up his statement by adding, “but people might have noticed that we've kept the trademark registered, and it's not been completely given up on.”
Ono’s comments clear up a lot of the mystery sounding the project, with the original team behind Deep Down clearly disbanding and leaving the title on hold while Capcom decides the best way to approach it. While those who liked the idea of the multiplayer dungeon crawler will no doubt be disappointed that the game is no longer in active development, Ono’s comments clearly indicate the company is still interested in pursuing the game despite this major setback.
He goes onto to expand on the potential of Deep Down returning, stating, "every year we examine titles we're doing in future, and we bring up projects to approve and move forward," before capping off his statement by reiterating, “we haven't given up on the title completely.” Although it is comforting to hear that Capcom still plans to explore fresh ideas, you can see why the company has left titles like Deep Down on the backburner when it's enjoying such a major resurgence in their biggest franchises. Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5 were both among the best-received entries in their respective series, pulling in high critical and audience acclaim as well as succeeding financially.
While the company will no doubt want to bolster its lineup with fresh, interesting games, it’ll likely have its hands full capitalizing on the new-found interest in its long-running franchises. Not only that, but with Capcom supposedly looking to bring some of its iconic older titles back in a similar fashion to this year’s Resident Evil 2, Deep Down could be left on hold for a long time to come.
Deep Down is in inactive development for unspecified consoles
Source: Eurogamer