
Developer Extremely OK Games is well known for its award-winning platformer games like Towerfall and Celeste. The massive fanbase the studio has gathered over the years has been waiting patiently for the company's next mainline game, titled Earthblade, for some time now. However, the game has now been officially canceled.
Developer Maddy Thorson announced the sudden change in a blog post, saying that she realizes this may come as a shock to fans.
"For us on the inside we've had some time to process, grieve, and work toward accepting this, although that process is nonlinear and still ongoing," says Thorson on the developer blog post. "For those only reading this now who might be emotionally invested in this project, we're sorry to disappoint you."
Trouble with development had begun when Pedro, a founding member of the studio, had split off to create his own team and develop a new project. While details were not given out, an issue regarding the IP rights of Celeste had created the fracture, which had prompted the remaining team members to assess the continued development of Earthblade.
Earthblade has been in development at Extremely OK Games since 2019, set to land as a Metroidvania 2D platformer. Its initial announcement happened in 2021, followed by a trailer showcase at The Game Awards in 2022. While the studio missed its 2023 launch window, it said 2024 would be the year Earthblade would come to fans.
"Celeste's success applied pressure on us to deliver something bigger and better with Earthblade, and that pressure is a large part of why working on it has become so exhausting," continues Thorson. "Because this is the internet, I want to be unequivocal here that the decision and responsibility for cancelling Earthblade rests entirely with me and Noel."
As for what direction Extremely OK Games will take now, Thorson ended the blog post by saying that the team is going back to prototyping and developing smaller-scale projects.
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