Earthblade, the highly anticipated game from the creators of the indie sensation Celeste, has been cancelled after internal challenges within the team. Learn what led to this outcome.
Earthblade Is Officially Cancelled
Developers Cite Internal "Fracture"
Earthblade, the much-anticipated next title from the studio behind the beloved indie game Celeste, has been officially cancelled due to internal tensions among the team.
Developer Extremely OK Games (EXOK) announced the news on their official website in a post titled The Final Earthblade Update. In it, EXOK Director Maddy Thorson explained the reasons behind the cancellation and outlined their path ahead.
"Late last month, Noel and I made the difficult choice to cancel Earthblade. Yes, we’re opening the year with a major, heartbreaking, yet somehow relieving failure," Thorson wrote, apologizing to fans who had waited so long—and acknowledging that the team is still processing the emotional toll of what happened.
She detailed how a deep "fracture" developed within the team, particularly between herself, EXOK programmer Noel Berry, and former Art Director Pedro Medeiros. At the heart of the conflict was a disagreement over the IP rights to Celeste, a matter Thorson declined to elaborate on, calling it "obviously a very difficult and heartbreaking process."
Though the team eventually reached a resolution, it led to Medeiros departing to pursue his own project: Neverway, under a new studio. Still, Thorson stressed that Pedro and the Neverway team are not enemies—and anyone who treats them as such has no place in any EXOK community.
"Losing Pedro wasn’t the only reason we cancelled the game, but it forced us to ask whether pushing forward with Earthblade was truly the right path. The project had promise, but frustratingly, it wasn’t as far along as one might expect after such a long development cycle. Celeste’s success created immense pressure to deliver something even bigger and better—and that weight made the work exhausting. We lost our way. It’s time to admit we can’t continue."
EXOK’s Future Plans
With much of the team now moved on, Thorson and Berry are focusing on learning from this experience and returning to smaller-scale projects. They’re currently prototyping and experimenting at their own pace, "trying to rediscover game development the way we did at the start of Celeste or TowerFall." They also expressed hope to collaborate with former team members in the future, ending on a hopeful note: "We gave it everything we had. Life goes on. We’re happy to return to our roots, reclaim some joy in our creative process, and see where it leads us."
Earthblade was set to be an explor-action platformer following Névoa, the enigmatic child of Fate, as they return to a ruined Earth to piece together what remains of the desolate world.
