As Metroidvania fans lament Ori dev's plan to work on its Souls-like for another 5 years at least, CEO says "we just had a call with Microsoft a few days ago" and "let's see what'll happen"

The developer of the beloved Ori games may be committed to its Early Access Diablo-like No Rest for the Wicked for the next 5-to-10 years, but Moon Studios CEO Thomas Mahler says that doesn't necessarily mean you won't see another Metroidvania from the studio in that time.

Over on Discord, Mahler has been chatting to fans about all things Ori, with some previous remarks about the studio working on No Rest for the Wicked for the next 5-to-10 years as development isn't ending after it hits 1.0 resurfacing.

Responding to a fan who reckons it's "sad" that we won't get another 3D platformer from the Ori devs for at least 10 years, Mahler says some words of comfort.

"Don't know about that," he says. "Wicked is the highest priority for me, but we just had a call from MS a few days ago. Let's see what'll happen. We'll be able to do a lot of things. But again, I'll be on Wicked and perfect it."

Mahler also admits Ori 3 might already be in the works at another studio, though he adds it'd be "very strange" if so, as no one has reached out to him or the studio about that. He also agrees that collaborating with Hollow Knight studio Team Cherry would be "rad indeed."

Keeping with the idea of another studio doing an Ori game, Mahler tells one fan who would rather wait for Moon Studios that the main challenge someone else would face is writing the story.

"You could already take all the mechanics we made for Wisps and just expand upon that," he says. "And you'd need some incredibly good level designers. But story-wise, I'm not sure I can think of any studio off the top of my head that would fit perfectly to continue Ori's story."

So there you have it; Moon Studios is still focusing on No Rest for the Wicked, though it doesn't necessarily mean there's no more room in the kitchen for something more familiar.

After a Mixed early access launch, acclaimed Metroidvania director behind the Ori games is striving to turn his new action RPG's Steam rating from a "58 into a 90."