The Legacy of Kain franchise has taken another hit, it seems. We’re now used to disappointment, but after waiting years and years (the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver remaster not withstanding), players have been burned time and time again.
Let’s rip off the band-aid as quick as possible; Eidos Montreal have been forced into a fresh round of layoffs, and a former developers CV quietly revealed that the studio had been working on a dark fantasy RPG, with an established, vampiric IP as the backdrop.
It was supposed to feature cool melee combat and parkour, and yes – this IP, most likely being tied to Legacy of Kain, has now been cancelled.
Although Legacy of Kain wasn’t explicitly mentioned, it is difficult to see beyond another Vampire-centric game series they could be meaning instead – and the description, the timing, and layoffs and Eidos means it really doesn’t take a lore-obsessed nerd to figure out which coffin they were trying to bury here.
“Eidos Montreal Internal Project – Dark Fantasy ARPG – Cancelled” — Can anyone corroborate this? 😢
byu/macredblue inLegacyOfKain
The Cancelled Legacy of Kain Reboot at Eidos Montreal
Truth be told, the recent layoffs are likely the reason players aren’t getting a Legacy of Kain RPG anytime soon – if ever.
The whole debacle surfaced because laid-off staff started updating their CVs and LinkedIn pages. One specific role at Eidos Montreal lists work on a cancelled dark fantasy ARPG focused on reviving a well known vampire IP, designed around close-quarters combat and parkour movement.
That single line made the rounds on Reddit and social media in hours, with fans in the Legacy of Kain community connecting the dots instantly. The studio’s catalogue, the vampire angle, and the specific mix of melee and acrobatics line up almost perfectly with what you would expect from a modern Nosgoth project, and to think it would’ve been an RPG…my dark heart bleeds in anguish.
The rest is modern, blood-soaked history, since Time Extension and other outlets then picked up the story, framing it as the latest in a grim pattern: Yet another attempt to bring LOK back from the dead (or just the past? Is that you, Moebius?), was killed in its slumber, just for us to see what could – and should – have been.
It pains me to say it, but perhaps it’s a good thing, we never really got to see anything about this reboot. No teaser, no codename, just some internal documentation and now a footnote on someone’s portfolio. But why did all of this happen in the first place?
Why Was the Legacy of Kain Reboot Cancelled?
To understand why this reboot was cancelled, we’d have to look no further than the mess the publisher Eidos Montreal finds itself in currently – and also, to stick with the fitting time theme, not much further back than 2022, where Eidos Montreal was sold by Square Enix to none other than Embracer Group.
This takeover came with some of the best brands ever to graze the digital screen, with Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, Thief and Legacy of Kain being sold.
At the time, however, Embracer talked a big game about reviving classic series and making sequels, remakes and remasters across the newly acquired IPs. On paper, it sounded like a renaissance.
Reality is often a feeble construct, and the massive financial deal expectedly collapsed when Embracer started slashing costs. A long restructuring began, and yet again, Eidos Montreal was hit with significant layoffs in early 2024, with another game – Deus Ex – being cancelled, after being in development for around two years. For anyone recognizing a pattern, and wishing the devs of our favorite franchises would start doing the same, you’re absolutely right. It is a pattern.
Are More Layoffs at Eidos Montreal Happening?
As you might’ve expected, more staff cuts at Eidos Montreal followed in April of 2025, and now the deeper effects are being unraveled, such as that Deus Ex sequel, and the vampire ARPG that almost certainly wore Kain’s cloak behind the scenes.
So instead of leading new entries in series, Eidos Montreal either built up, or at least helped to re-popularize, they’ve instead been sidelined to a support role on Microsoft projects like Xbox exclusive Fable Reboot and the Ground sequel.
For a team that used to headline Deus Ex and Guardians of the Galaxy, that is a harsh downgrade. It also means passion projects and risky revivals are the first things to be sacrificed when budgets tighten. In that context, a dark, story heavy vampire action RPG based on a cult series is the exact sort of game that disappears at the concept art stage, no matter how excited the people making it might be, and yes – Legacy of Kain hasn’t been culturally relevant since forever.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t a market or – pardon the pun – a thirst for more in that lore-heavy series. The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver remasters have sold like hot-cakes, and we’re pretty sure that among the renaissance of old-school RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate, a dark and gritty ARPG in this universe would fare the same way – but obviously that’s just me talking with pure longing in my heart.
The Switch 2 Would’ve Been A Perfect Place for More Nosgoth Adventures
Considering Nintendo players really have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to dark third party entries, a shift could be noticed in how the Japanese video game giant treats its systems.
The Switch and its successor have already become comfortable homes for darker and more complex games than Nintendo used to host. Diablo, Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, multiple Soulslikes, as well as vampire-themed hits like Vampire Survivors and V Rising either already live on Nintendo hardware or are circling it. A third person, parkour heavy dark fantasy ARPG sits right in the middle of that ecosystem.
On top of that, the core Switch audience is full of people who never owned a Dreamcast, original PlayStation or early 2000s PCs, as they’re simply too young. A Legacy of Kain reboot would have been an ideal way to introduce a new generation to Nosgoth without asking them to wrestle with old hardware or dated controls. You can almost picture the eShop page: a modern, visually sharp vampire action RPG sitting alongside the inevitable Legacy of Kain collection or remaster for those who want to go back.