The Marketing Campaign That Destroyed A Franchise 

"There's a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person," says Warren Spector, creator of Thief and Deus Ex.

Dead Cells had a good run, and the developer who handled the support, Evil Empire, did a great job. I hope they give the same love to their next game, The Rogue Prince of Persia. I'm also looking forward to Windblown.

Hey there, I've been pretty involved in the Dead Cells community for several years and have been very much in the weeds of all this drama. The veteran community all hates Motion Twin now and most people I know will be boycotting Windblown. Here's a few bits of more "insider" info that you didn't catch (by no fault of your own). I can tell you with 100% certainty that there were more updates planned. The next update after u35 (The End is Near), was supposed to overhaul the experience for new players. This directly goes against the "The game is finished, adding more will bloat it" narrative that MT is trying to push. There was an entire new DLC planned by EE that MT forced them to can because of the development cancellation. It was still in early development stages but would mean at least one more major update to the game. A very recent point that came up involves the animated show. That's its own can of worms so I'll just refer to what's relevant here. Evil Empire is entirely absent from the credits on the ADN release (French website) and, more damning, has their company name hastily blurred out of the credits for the RU-vid release of the first episode. This lends even more credence to the idea that MT is trying to quietly shuffle EE out of the way so they can retain the title of "creators of DC." Edit: Forgot to mention that the community manager/ marketing person was changed from "Matt" to someone who goes by "XYZ" on the official Dead Cells discord right before update 35/3.5 hit beta. It doesn't seem very logical to have someone else take over that role just to announce the release of the u35 beta. This also suggests that a lot more was planned. None of that besides the show credits thing is really widely known and that happened a few days ago, so this video covers basically everything possible. Overall, this was an amazingly well-researched video that I will be sharing around the DC community as much as possible.

did you know? the game has a build of a "final farewell" update that's been stuck in beta since before the announcement of them ending updates? You can still access it and fully completes the feature set by adding a few new routes so that players can finally take both parts of the castlevania dlc in a single run, even if they're going for late game dracula's castle instead of early game. I wish this update could be finished off and finally come to console but that's not likely at this point lol

Devolver Digital has a new game called "Tenjitsu" which has it's marketing as "By the Designer of Dead Cells"

Personally for me I always thought EE was the creators of dead cells because of how The Rouge PoP looks basically like dead cells as opposed to windblown which totally looks like a whole new thing

While I'm still absolutely LIVID that Microsoft closed down Arkane Austin, the team that made Prey, the best immersive sim, stealth, cosmic horror experience ever... well fect of the matter is MOST of the team that ACTUALLY developed Prey left BECAUSE of the development of Redfall. Even if Microsoft lifted their finger, delayed the game, reorganized and saved that sinking ship, if it turned out to be a BANGER title, that team would still be gone.

I used to be a giant dead cells fan, I put over 900 hours in the game. I 100%ed it every update, at some point even had two save files that were 100%ed. I got all achivments, I beat the game on the hardest difficulty hitless. Went through the tens of hours of grinding the hardest things possible in the game such as the boss rush. It used to be my favorite game of all time, I played I since 2020 and this was Soul crushing. Motion twin made dead cells but evil empire MADE dead cells, the game would be nowhere near how good it is without them. Every single update better and better, weapons being cooler and even more fun and satisfying to use. When I saw windblown was "made by the team behind dead cells" I got justifyingly, very excited and I thought I would buy it day one but after all of this, more and more coming out about MT I think I won't get it. I was already thinking of buying the price of Persia game but I'm definitely getting it to support EE, they don't deserve this and it is a shame what MT did to them. Let alone a shame that MT made dead cells instead of them, literally putting away an incredible game that could be even better, served on a silver platter away from their hands. And the fact that the EE logo and name is blurred out of the credits of the dead cells animated show is a disgrace and whoever was behind it should be ashamed. (the show sucks btw and does not have the essence or lore of dead cells)

I think it's reasonable to say both EvilE and MotionT are the creators behind deadcells.

Let me say as someone that played the DLCs and paid close attention to the game during its full lifetime, Evil Empire did such a good job (atualization, balance, DLC, and collabs). To me they do deserve credit too as creators they did a lot for the game and put their heart and love into it (if you have the DLCs the game basicaly triple in content, and has some of the best content in my opinion, so they did a lot...). I bleeds me to see the resentifullness

Evil Empire are responsible for all my favorite updates to dead cells. Yeah motion twin made the base game but best content in the gsme out of evil empire

kinda suprised you didnt cover the new Tenjutsu trailer. in the trailer it says "made by the designer of dead cells", which is Sébastien Benard.

While stupid, Sebastian's calling it an educated guess is a legal jardon - to avoid cases from MT itself

Theseus's Ship as it relates to video games reminds me of Metroid Prime 4. It was exciting to hear that Retro Studios was working on the series again, but it's been so long since Prime 3 that there's a high likelihood that the studio has turned over its whole staff by now. I'd guess that few, if any, people working on 4 are the same ones who worked on the Trilogy, and that has me worried.

The discussion surrounding this is a cesspool due to the amount of people who love to call other gamers "entitled". That word is a red flag for anti-consumer NPCs who stan for corpos (especially in matters of consumer rights, although this isn't that). EE wants to develop new content. Fans want to buy new content. MT kills upcoming new content to promote their new game. I ask, how is it entitled to complain about this? We aren't ENTITLED to new content, but is sure feels like MT is screwing their fans over.

It's a small thing, but your editing and transitions is spot-on.

Really good video! We definitely have to be more aware of the fact that employees in a studio change over time. Also, I noticed a drastic leap in editing quality on this one! I can't believe how much effort you put into the animation and effects for this video. Keep doing good work!

One of the first gaming experiences my second cousin has was sitting on my lap "playing" Dead Cells. As in I found the giant hammer weapon and he mashed attack whilst I desperately tried to dodge so we didn't die. Years later he still remembers playing that game with me. Video games are art and art has real power over people. It's so disgusting to see MT treat the game like this.

Well edited, well presented, and with an all around great energy from you! Great job Asad!!

The gaming community tends to put a lot of stock in company names when we should be paying more attention to the actual people attached to these projects. People have wondered why games like Suicide Squad and Redfall came out in the state they were in when they are made by such prolific studios, but one look at the list of major staff involved with these projects and comparing it to that of those older, better games reveals exactly what happened. But by that same token, just because one big name changes studios doesn't mean their new game is gonna be like their previous work. Kojima fans followed him to his new studio and many love Death Stranding and attribute it to him being freed from Konami, but some seem to forget it wasn't just him, a huge chunk of his studio is also former Konami staff.

Dead Cells had the potential to grow even bigger and have more crossovers like the Castlevania dlc. Although the game is good as it is, it's a shame we'll never get to see it reach its full potential. My brother wanted to see a Demon Slayer dlc in the same vein as the Castlevania dlc. And I think it could have been great (although improbable to happen).

The graphics you use in your video makes everything so much more enjoyable and easy to understand Physically breaking the logo and placing a beard on it lowkey helped me wrap my head around it so much more

This is my first time coming across your channel and I really loved your insight and perspective while keeping track of all the facts too. I noticed Evil Empire being attached to Dead Cells, but I had never made the connection between the development teams switching and branching off and everything. The game definitely had a good run and it's still fun and has a lot of surprisingly good content, so I can't be mad, but it is weird the way everything just kind of stopped when it felt like it had so much momentum still

found the channel from this video and it's noice. i like the paper style to the editing too.

Bro Deadcells is hella hard after 0bc. I'm with you in the 0bc boss kill only club! I've beaten risk of rain 2 multiple times on monsoon and 100%ed noita but deadcells was too much for me =P

here's the thing though... the dead cells show is coming. so in theory it would make more sense for motion twin to keep it going. i guess in a way it gives their version of the story a bit more credit in the idea of "it's complete".

can anyone explain what "supporting a game" actually means? i mean the game's finished, it's done, it'a a good game, anyone can play it from now up until the heat death of the universe, what more do people want? what's the point of constant updates if the the product is already good?

The best analogy I heard for this is a football team. They wear the same shirts, but they are not the same team

Good video again. Also I liked the edits (and holy shit I didn't see 14:10 coming, it got me good) I definitely don't trust Motion Twin anymore, but I don't really trust Evil Empire either at this point (pretty sure there was some stuff about them recently about unlawful firings or something like that). But yeah the ship of Theseus thing is an important thing to keep in mind with games. And generally, asking "who made this" is still a good question. Like even recently, Nintendo is being Nintendo and refuses to announce who's making the games they publish, but it's made even worse by one of those games being Mario & Luigi, a series originally developped by AlphaDream, who doesn't even exist anymore. Generally we just tend to rely on names we recognize and think "oh yeah the first one was good, surely the new one will be too", and even for those who look further, knowing the studio doesn't mean you know who's not there anymore. ZA/UM who made Disco Elysium basically fired everyone but whatever they make next will still use DE for marketing. Rocksteady had expectations recently too, but who knows how many of those devs actually made the games people liked. It's a mess and that's why it's just easier to follow tiny devs 🤠

i miss when good successful games got sequels and support

So Evil Empire isn't evil (yet), but MotionTwin is? bruh.

Wow I feel like I'm on the ground floor with your subscriber count.

As far as the theseus paradox, ive always made sure not to trust a "from the creators of" tagline since its one of the most overused taglines especially in cinema, and when they say that 9/10 times its JUST the director. Never the screenplay writer, or dialog writers

so this is like the opposite of terraria where the devs keep saying its the last update but then big new update.

I didn't even realize that EE was working on Dead Cells, but I also haven't played since the first DLC. I was honestly surprised that we got Castlevania because I thought that they said they were going to work on other new projects in the same universe.

I think it's easier to say " *These* people started Dead Cells, *these* people worked on it, here's what they're all doing right now" rather than "Some of this company and some of that company, but this company mostly *started* it while this company did *these* parts" etc etc.

I suppose, would it not be true that Dead cells wouldn't exist without motion twin? Evil empire put in a ton of work, but they wouldn't exist without motion twin starting it off

Its kind of like bands that are completely different than what it used to be. Equilibrium is one of my favorite bands, but now they are a bunch of people who had nothing to do with the original band, dont sing about the same subjects, are a different genre and dont even sing in the same language. Modern day Equilibrium has no business being called Equalibrium

3:34 what the hell is windblown

That "developer's dad worked on Dead Cells and his mom was Hispanic" line really got me! 😆 The Theseus' ship paradox is interesting though. From what I've heard, every cell in our body is replaced within a 7 year timeframe, does that make us a different person? I'd argue no, because there's a contiguity of consciousness that defines a large portion of who we are. Even physically, as new cells are created, they become part of our body, so there is a rolling contiguity of physicality even if none of the cells have existed as long as the body has. It's a little different with inanimate objects like a ship, or organizations like game developers. That said, the cells in a body thing has some parallels with game development. If a new developer joins a company, they're usually chosen at least in part because they're considered a good "fit" for the company (or of similar creative "DNA" so to speak). Also they will often learn many of the skills and philosophies that shaped that studio's games. In some sense, you could argue that given sufficient time, they could be considered to have further adopted the "DNA" of that developer. That said, the reality is that some developers are more responsible for aspects of a game than others, and some skills are more transferrable than others. I'm sure you could identify franchises that continued with the same company after pivotal developers had left, with a notable decline in some aspect of latter games (quality, vision, art direction, game feel, etc.) marking their departure. But on the other hand, unless you're talking about a solo developer, the realization of a creative director's vision is almost entirely reliant on the talents of their team. So those seemingly monolithic figures that get their name attached to particular games, crucial as they may have been, really can't take all the credit. Nor can they reliably assert they'll be able to capture lighting a subsequent time on a new project with a different team. At the end of the day, it can go either way (or both ways at the same time); so the only way to assess how things have shaken down is by checking out the new games/updates that developers make to try to parse how much if any of the magic sauce of their previous projects is present in the new one. Enjoyed the video as always! 👍

14:09 GAME THEORY MENTIONED 🗣🗣🗣❤❤

Goat is back

not quite my tempo, am i right?

Kinda unfortunate how often i just find games i like, that i know had went out with not a bang, but a whimper. Especially given how i find the Castlevania dlc to be awful. Especially given the sheer irresponsible treatment Dead Cells suddenly getsz which makes me very concerned about if the game will become awful to play after it.

Haven't heard the name Dead Cells in years

Whiplash ❤ one of my favorite movie. Also, still haven't played Dead Cells, but I'm all about the drama!

also there is a dead cells show now

Nice vid 😮

I did get clickbaited but the video was worth it

Great vids

Eh. I will never buy another Motion Twin game. Basically, if this is what they did with Dead Cells, what's to stop the same from happening with Windblown, any future MT game? No hate to anyone who is going to buy Windblown, or future MT games, but it's gonna be a pass for me.

i have beaten dead cells with 4 boss cells active and i like this video so your okay

RIP dead cells. It will be remembered. o7

Dead cells cause my headeache just at looking it

I've only played till Fatal Falls expansion (I think the giant and the plant DLC were earlier) and I loved the game. Why there's so much hate for this game now, what happened?

My takeway im gonna grab from this, no matter how socialist a company's model is, it's reputation and it's decisions will eventually be ruined by the advent of capital as long as it drives the interests of production

Sub for great, objective introspective and incredible editing!

Honestly I'm gonna say personally this situation seems fairly obvious to me. Indie studios usually have less reason to be so corporate and lack transparency so the fact that that's the case seems to me like it's because they're trying to hide something. From your video (correct me if I'm wrong) it seems that Motion Twin were literally the ones who made the decision to shut down development and "the game felt complete" is obviously a terrible excuse for such a sudden decision that cancelled so many ideas that were in the middle of being developed. A terrible lie. I choose to believe the accusations. A shame since Windblown looks really nice, but all of this really taints its image. Though I don't necessarily think the whole team was on board with shutting down Dead Cells for these petty and greedy reasons, but still, it's a cooperative, so...

Really? This is the drama? Most development teams go through some membership shakeup between games, due to people just dropping out and moving on to other projects or (if you're from the AAA space) most of your workers just being contractors whose contracts expire as soon as the game is finished so the billion dollar company can save on labor expenses. Creative leads mostly stay the same, but that's mostly marketing to keep them on and the people under them change massively over time. Most commonly this is seen with MMOs, where leads and teams are cycled every few years just to avoid burnout and give other people a chance. More than likely your favorite game franchises, even in their heydays, have had their dev teams Ship of Theseus-ed throughout their entire lifespans. If you have a modicum of what the game dev environment is like, you should be more pissed that the industry encourages such massive turnover rates, making sticking on one team an unstable job prospect, rather than being pissed your favorite game dev team in 2024 techinally isn't the same as it was in 2018.

don't worry, i've only done 0 cells. 50/50 not giving a shit about the harder ones (i hate overly-difficult shit) and not really playing the game cuz they just kept adding shit and i didn't wanna keep up with it lol

It's kinda painful to play Dead Cells now. Half the passages you can explore end in a "Buy THIS DLC to continue!" or "Buy THAT DLC to continue!" And if you want to buy all the DLC to get rid of those messages and maybe see some new locales & weapons, it'll cost more than 100 dollars! I can't even recommend Dead Cells to anyone anymore, I just say, "Wait for the complete edition to come out on Switch 2" because you're just paying to get upsold at if you buy it now.

It’s been out 7 years now… tf

I'm just mostly stay away from game they advertise always banking on "from the creator of xxx popular game" to dry, most case we end up see them don't deliver the expectation people think due to that "from creator of". Remember B4B? They banking on "from creator of l4d" people expect alot of og creator work on the development, only to be found just count by finger that actualy the og developer, the rest are too busy with other project, retired and goes on other profession because harsh reality of being game dev tend to have low salary.

I dont care either way. Im just here to grill.

Dead Cells is so peak

be so for real man

I don't want to watch the video, can someone TL/DR me?

Im boycotting windblown personally. More updates and possibly dlcs were planned.

Who made dead cells. Wtf? Why that section exist?

The "from the creators of" or the "behind the minds from" is just a marketing sham. Realistically, most of the time you guy one maybe two guys from the original creation with the other 99% of the team being new devs or creators. Communicating creation crediting is a big issue when it comes to the industry in general. Like Arkane for example, most don't even know after Dishonored the team split to two separate teams but people and even execs over them only refer to them as just "Arkane" even though it's practically different people designing the games. Don't even get me started on the Japanese development scene, eastern devs crediting is soo secretive, you can rarely find who made what when it comes differentiating the teams unless you look through online individually who was apart of the creation. I think their definitely is some underlying thintb going on between Motion Twin and Evil Empire, the marketing team is never going to tell us or make it clear but the way they been moving, it seems to me some guys at MT aren't too keen on their creation being more associated with Evil Empire as you were implying, and why would they right, they made the game and it was a hit. Good vid Asad.

the most funny is that this vid has 69 dislikes lol

Does EE own all the rights to DC? If not, case closed. 😂

😴😴

Here's a hot take: Dead Cells used to be way more fun and interesting before Evil Empire came on board! I think the features and rebalancing and overhauls have "over-designed" the game and made the overall meta way too confusing to the point of being less fun!

Wow most of this video is completely pointless, I don't care how small the percentage of "the creators of deadcells" is!

I don't want to be rude but, wow this video turns out to be a nothing burger or maybe I'm not just attached to Dead Cells like that.

Literally time waste of a topic

Dead Cells is one of those games that has been on my Steam wishlist forever but every time I see it on sale I think "meh".