Among Us 2 Cancelled For The Best Possible Reason
The dev team at InnterSloth revealed that the hyper-popular Among Us would not get a direct sequel any time soon. This announcement was delivered on September 23, 2020, as the first game (Among Us) was living in a golden age – it's EXTREMELY popular right now. This first online-centered game is so extremely popular that its developers have decided to stay dedicated to updating, rather than creating a whole second game.
This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened with an online game. It's not even the first time this sort of thing has happened this year. In June of 2020, Destiny 3 was cancelled in favor of continued support for players of the game Destiny 2. The developers at Bungie had to make the mistake of releasing Destiny 2, fracturing the fanbase between Destiny 1 and 2, before they realized what they needed to do in the future.
Developers at Innersloth released a statement on the subject at the tail end of the day on September 23, 2020. "We have decided to cancel Among Us 2 and instead put all our focus into improving Among Us 1. All of the content we had planned for Among Us 2 will instead go into Among Us 1," wrote the Innersloth Devlog. "This is probably the more difficult choice because it means going deep into the core code of the game and reworking several parts of it. We have lots of things planned and we're excited to bring new content to everyone as you continue to enjoy playing!"
This is the way. This is how things are going to need to go for gigantic online games in the future. Gamers play these games for their fellow players and the gear that they gather just as much as they do for the game's features. Especially when the game is centered on competition.
It'd be like the game of basketball being replaced with a new version of the game of basketball every year instead of tweaking the rules and changing players every once in a while. We would not be surprised to see this sort of thing happen with other major-label online games in the future by default. If only we'd had this thought process with Titanfall...