Deep Down remains one of this generation’s greatest mysteries. Announced during the PlayStation 4 reveal event in February 2013, the dungeon crawler from Capcom hasn’t been publicly spoken of in quite some time. Indeed, the most recent update concerns a trademark filing in 2018. That, at the least, suggested Capcom had not yet abandoned the never-used IP. According to producer Yoshinori Ono, the publisher still isn’t ready to give up on the project.
Famously known for his involvement in Street Fighter development, Yoshinori Ono is often called Mr. Street Fighter. Had Deep Down taken off as initially intended, might Ono have been awarded a new nickname? In a recent interview with the developer, Eurogamer posed a similar question. Ono’s answer indicates Deep Down may still have a future at Capcom. He shared the following with the publication,
I haven’t been called Mr. Deep Down quite yet. The original team is clearly no longer together at this point, but people might have noticed that we’ve kept the trademark registered, and it’s not been completely given up on. Every year we examine titles we’re doing in future, and we bring up projects to approve and move forward. There’s not much I can say about it, but if you’ve noticed we’ve kept the trademark it means we haven’t given up on the title completely.
When pressed about a version of the title made playable during a past Tokyo Game Show event, Ono explained, “we did have the concept developed a bit further than that, but yeah…” Unfortunately, he did not offer any additional details.
Based on Ono’s statements, it seems Deep Down is no longer in active development. Whether or not it will ever return bearing any semblance of the vision shown off six years ago remains to be seen. Regardless, it is good to know Capcom hasn’t entirely written the project off.
[Source: Eurogamer]
