Thief is Not Getting a New Game, Sorry

Yesterday, I reported Eidos Montreal, the folks who are not IO Interactive (my bad), was going to work on a new Thief game, despite their 2014 reboot not doing so hot and Square Enix, the publisher, having a hard time justifying spending on something so questionable when they’re already trying to get rid of IO Interactive (who are actually getting sold).

In retrospect, considering the poor sales and the current state of Square Enix, I may have jumped the gun on that one, and Eidos Montreal has gone out of their way to gently poke fun at impressionable press such as myself who were quick to hop on the hype train. While Square Enix let out your standard “no comment”, Eidos Montreal boss David Anfossi took a slightly more comedic approach.

“Apparently we’re developing Thief 5 game! So now we have a title... We just have to build a team,a budget... Forget it! @EidosMontreal”

Alright, so that settles that: there will not be a new Thief game in the works. Which, in the end, is less surprising than the unusual way we heard about it in the first place, but it does beg the question: if there’s not a new Thief game in the works, what exactly was Straight Up Films talking about? Is there a movie coming out, or was that an “exaggeration” too? Was the new game maybe one of those cheap mobile ports you sometimes see movies get before they launch? Or did they just get over-ambitious and make a promise for Eidos Montreal they had no way to ensure they’d keep?

Either way, it’s a bit of a communications blunder, so good on Eidos to correct it as quickly as they did. And shame on Square for playing fast and loose and possibly getting people’s hopes up. For shame.