A new edition of Deus Ex was supposed to get half the Cyberpunk community excited. The opposite was the case, and now the developers are facing the consequences.
Sometimes nostalgia backfires. For every successful reissue, there is also a disappointing remaster somewhere that completely misses the mark. Or more specifically: sometimes you have a System Shock 2 remaster, sometimes the Definitive Edition of the GTA Trilogy.
So it’s no wonder that die-hard fans are biting their nails when one of the best role-playing games of all time is set to be continued: the first Deus Ex. Deus Ex: Remastered was announced just under two months ago in a short 30-second teaser as part of Sony’s State of Play. But that was enough to get quite a few people up in arms.
Now the developers at Aspyr have addressed their community in a statement via Steam, announcing that the remaster of the first Deus Ex will be postponed indefinitely. Here are the details.
Why is the remaster of Deus Ex being delayed?
The exact wording in the announcement on Steam:
Thank you to the community for your feedback following the announcement of Deus Ex Remastered.
We are listening to your feedback, and in order to better meet fan expectations and provide the best possible experience for players, Deus Ex Remastered will no longer be released on February 5, 2026.
We look forward to sharing more news with you in due course.
All existing pre-orders will be fully refunded. Thank you again for your patience and support.
This is the developers’ response to vocal criticism from the community, which has been highly critical of the scenes from the remaster shown so far. The main points of criticism are:
- The graphical overhaul looks like a sloppy AI scaling that doesn’t do justice to the great lighting atmosphere of the original.
- The new 3D models of JC Denton and co. look pretty ugly.
- The fact that the upscaled posters on the walls contain confusing spelling mistakes is reminiscent of the worst moments of the GTA Trilogy.
And last but not least, there have been fan-created remaster mods for years that significantly spruce up the original Deus Ex – and, in the opinion of many players, even offer better visual quality than what has been seen in the official remaster trailer so far.
The developers want to take this criticism to heart, but it remains unclear what this means for development in concrete terms. The post does not mention a specific new release date. The fact that pre-orders are being refunded also suggests that Deus Ex: Remastered will be put on hold for an indefinite period. We will keep you up to date as soon as there are any developments. Deus Ex fans are used to waiting, anyway, as they have been doing so for many years.
