Hey, this weird ARG thing by Square Enix is happening. Only a couple days earlier they were hyping up a big announcement from one of their Western studios to come on Monday. Now this started. Whatever it is, I hope it's Deus Ex related.

http://www.twitch.tv/cantkillprogress

I don't really know what is going on. There was apparently also a twitter account linked to this, but a lot have taken to calling the twitter a hoax. There is a related instagram account that is legit, and seems to have garbled video clips. There's a guy in a cell, and he's a hostage or something? Occasionally guards come in to feed him, and there's some kind of vote happening every so hours. Twitch chat seems to have some control, including camera switching. Probably not worth constantly watching, as it's meant to go for 3 days, but interesting nonetheless. Maybe SE is taking cues from PT and trying to inject a bit of mystery back into major game reveals.

Edit: Already reading rumours that this ARG points towards Deus Ex, with the Czech Republic being a major location. Get warily excited.

Poor guy, has to sit in a cell for a marketing stunt.

"Can't Kill Progress" definitely seems like a Deus Ex kind of name.

This seems like an overly elaborate way to tell people about a new Deus Ex game.

April is a strange time to make a big announcement when we're only two months out from E3. Deus Ex is hardly Call of Duty big, but it's significant enough to warrant stage time. Maybe they're just teasing it now with a bigger reveal planned for June? In any case, I hope they're making a new Deus Ex; Human Revolution was a fucking revelation.

Why do companies feel the need to do this? Can't they just come out and say, "Hey, we're making this thing, expect it out ***."

The same reason that movie trailers aren't just the name of the movie and a release date for two minutes and thirty seconds. Because you'd immediately forget about it.

Wrapping it in any sort of mystery or prompting you to give it any sort of thought beyond simple acknowledgement goes a long way into helping information lodge itself into your brain.

@conmulligan: I would think you would have learned that lesson from last year though. People don't need E3 for announcements anymore. Infact if you don't announce during E3 then your game likely gets much more buzz because it isn't lost of the bevy of other game announcements that happen at the same time. It's why we saw so much announcements early in the year and also why we saw a bunch at the game awards and at that PS Experience thing.

That was my first guess when I saw CKP stood for "Can't Kill Progress". Reminds me of that line from the Human Revolution trailer: "They cannot stop us. They cannot stop the future."

@the_nubster said:

I suppose I'm just not the intended audience for this sort of thing. If I hear about a game I want to play (such as a new Deus Ex game), I'm not going to forget about it. Guess it's for those who don't really play games much. Although I might argue that even stunts like this don't likely have that much more of an effect on people's ability to remember a product.

@neocalypso: Don't get me wrong, I think shows like the Game Awards and the PlayStation Experience are totally viable ways to announce a new game. It also makes perfect sense to try and get out of the way of E3 so you don't get lost in the shuffle. I think that only works for certain types of games, though. Deus Ex seems like the quintessential E3 reveal to me — big enough so that it doesn't get lost in the shuffle, but not so big that it wouldn't benefit from a chunk of press conference time.

IDAFT?

Some hot screenshots from earlier in the ARG. Seems to all but confirm this to be a Deus Ex thing, but that can always change.

Yeah, you are definitely not the intended audience. You seem to really underestimate the power of a good marketing campaign, and I'm guessing you also unintentionally downplay the effects of creative advertising. The fact that this very ARG thing is posted here and we're talking about shows it's working!

I can't watch this right now, but I sure as hell am excited to play a follow-up to Deus Ex: HR. I hope the lessons they learned with the Director's Cut are applied to this upcoming installment. Those horrible boss fights ruined what could have been a truly great game.

Considering what Deus Ex is, an ARG marketing campaign is just about perfect. I'm waiting for some references to Majestic 12 and UNATCO. If you played the first Deus Ex... You know where I'm going with this.

Just going to give my own two cents on this, even though I'm OP. I think that ARGs like this are great. They show a side of an otherwise pretty faceless publisher that is willing to engage with the fans with a mystery. It can be a great marketing campaign, and if done well, everyone involved has great fun doing it. I remember that Bioshock 2 also had a pretty great ARG, about a detective trying to investigate Rapture and the disappearance of girls, with him ending up a side character of the game.
The only major way that something like this can backfire is if the payoff is not great or completely unexpected. Quite a few people at this point are convinced that this is a Deus Ex thing, and there's going to be a lot of disappointment, including from myself, if it turns out not to be the case.

It's been long enough, so I certainly hope this turns out to really be a new full-fledged Deus Ex game.

http://www.pcgamer.com/deus-ex-mankind-divided-details-leak/

@mb said:

Well then. I see they've opted for the Crysis style of "hold your gun up to your face like an idiot to mess around with its attachments."

@bisonhero: I think it's a little early to say they have "opted" for anything. If those screens are legit then they are concept renders at most.

This lends some legitimacy to the concept renders. Although the game probably is really early in development so a lot might change.

@tuxfool said:

Is it really that early in development? It's probably all they've been working on since Thief, so it's been in production for over a year. This new Deus Ex isn't going to come out like, tomorrow or anything, but I assume they've already put in quite a lot of work on the project. Plus, judging by the concept renders (assuming this isn't an elaborate fake), they're probably making a pretty safe sequel to Human Revolution and already have a lot of art cues to work with, compared to the dev cycle of Human Revolution which had to start pretty much from scratch.

Oh boy! More Adam Jensen monotone!

@bisonhero said:

Thief and Human Revolution were in development at the same time, which means they're at least a two-team studio. I wouldn't be surprised if Mankind Divided has been in the works since 2011.

Yea, there's a sort-of-trailer. E3, yo.

@arbitrarywater said:

I might've asked for this.

Yup, totally OK with that. It wouldn't be Deus EX without monotone MC.

What I'm less OK with is the lack of Malik. That sting could lessened if we get Jock instead.

Hmm. In preproduction of some form, probably. They only announced the engine they were going to use at the end of last year.

@tuxfool said:

Sure, but the engine is being built internally which means it's likely being done so in tandem with Deus Ex. I'd be shocked if they spent 2-3 years just repurposing an Io Interactive engine.

http://www.pcgamer.com/deus-ex-universe-announced-is-an-expanding-and-connected-game-world-that-includes-a-new-pc-game/

They announced the engine last December, but Eidos announced they were already working on a new Deus Ex back in 2013. In that interview Eidos mentions they are, "already underway," with a proper sequel on PC and consoles.