As Lead Designer of Deus Ex 1 and Project Director of Deus Ex 2, I feel compelled to share some timely information with the members of the DX community.

I feel like I know the “DX2 Plan” fairly well, having been one of the people involved in creating it. I also know the team-a very smart, passionate group that I’ve helped to staff, made up of developers from ION, Looking Glass, Origin and Digital Anvil. We’re super-diehard fans of both PC and console games. Let me clarify our goals:

We want to make DX2 better than DX1 in every possible way. Along with the team, I spend a lot of time working on the design doc and helping shape the game-I can tell you with confidence that DX2 is very much the follow-up to Deus Ex. DX2 is an immersive sim-part role-playing, part stealth, part action. The keys to the game are exploration of an atmospheric environment and providing the player with a lot of freedom (through the powerful simulation, self-expression and by providing multiple approaches to problem-solving, just like with DX1).

We want DX2 to ship on multiple platforms. (Just like DX1, for which we supported PC, Mac and PS2.) Right now our plans (budget and schedules) involve simultaneously shipping versions of the game for the PC and a specific console. Later, we’ll probably try to support other platforms-it’s a way to get the game to as many players as possible and to keep the company strong. We feel like we can bring our experience to the console world. We want to make smart games without compromising our creative goals. We take game creation very seriously and we want DX2 to be a powerful experience.

That sums it up. If you liked DX1, trust us to do the right thing. Thanks for caring enough about games to read this far. (Here-take this cookie…) If you’re interested in gathering more info, I would point you to messages by Warren Spector (Executive Producer and ION visionary) and Randy Smith (Project Director of Thief III).