Dead Cells launched in Early Access in 2017, and developer Motion Twin's brilliant mashup of Rogue Lite and Metroidvania quickly gained users. It was a great game from the moment it launched, but support during and after the Early Access period was very good, and mostly free. Most recently, I enjoyed the excellent DLC for Castlevania, and the current developer, Evil Empire, shows no signs of slowing down.

The studio has now announced that it has sold over 10 million copies of "Dead Cells," a remarkable milestone for an indie title of this kind. Of course, this is not only the PC version, but also the console and mobile versions, but the quality of "Dead Cells" and the number of free and paid updates says it all. I still load it up every now and then and have a blast each time, and now that there are so many items available, I look forward to seeing what wacky buffs and weapon combinations I can come up with each time I run it.

"Following the success of Dead Cells: Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania, Evil Empire has been looking for a way forward for the title as a whole, after taking over live ops for Dead Cells in 2019, With the success of updates and expansions over the years, the studio is tweaking its time-tested methodology, experimenting with ideas for future updates and new ways for fans to enjoy one of their favorite roguelikes."

Briefly describing the development status, Evil Empire is a so-called spin-off studio, made up of staff from Motion Twin, the original developer of Dead Cells, which took over the reins of the game in 2019 and is still in development Motion Twin is working on another unreleased game, and Evil Empire continues to support it while working on its own project.

Evil Empire CEO Steve Filby has said that Dead Cells is "not going anywhere," with content planned at least through the end of 2024. As for behind-the-scenes efforts, Evil Empire has signed a deal to revive two retro gaming IPs that are, according to Filby, "really big historical pieces in the video game world."