Pragmata developers have shared stories of the game's tumultuous development, with some particularly brutal internal criticism coming to light.
Pragmata was one of the first games unveiled for the PS5 back in 2020, and considering it only released a couple of months ago, it's safe to say that development was a bit troubled. Thankfully, it was all for the best as Pragmata is one of the most beloved games of 2026 so far and has gone down a hit with players, enough that Capcom is already considering moving forward with it as a series.
In a Pragmata livestream earlier this month (translated by Automaton), the developers revealed that the project started in 2019 when Capcom head Jun Takeuchi tasked a team of young developers with making "a game on the moon." However, shortly after the trailer debuted in 2020, the team ran into trouble as test stages were being rejected, with the team being told they were "unable to make compelling puzzles," "unable to make compelling action," and "incompetent at level design" in internal feedback.
This led to the creation of the hacking system that the game we know now features. Unfortunately, the hacking wasn't taken well at first, either, as the team shared more of the criticism it faced, like, "The game logic we worked so hard on building is completely broken," "This has fundamentally worsened the game, I am deeply disappointed," and "Give me back the two months I lost working alongside the team. Is this what you're trying to entertain your players with?"
However in the next presentation – the one where it would be decided whether the game would be canceled or not – it was a hit. And in the end it all worked out, as Pragmata hit two million copies sold within the first month.
Akihiro Togawa, a developer on the equally troubled The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, responds to this presentation on Twitter, saying: "Even though it's someone else's problem, I couldn't view it as such, seeing this made my stomach hurt."
He follows this up, saying: "When you're making games, unfair things and problems happen on a daily basis, and I think on most days it makes you feel completely beat down and exhausted." He adds: "If you keep facing those challenges honestly, you'll eventually be able to finish the game and release it to the world so that players can enjoy it. Let's keep that in mind and keep doing our best. We are all the next Pragmata."
