Deus Ex Adam Jensen actor says goodbye to character, as he regrets state of the industry

Elias Toufexis has said goodbye to his Deus Ex character, Adam Jensen, now that the franchise's in-development next entry has been canned.

Writing on the Deus Ex reddit, Toufexis – who also plays Sam Coe in Starfield – said he wanted to share his gratitude with the series' community. “I wanted to come on here and say thank you for this page, your wonderful messages over the years, and your continued, unbelievably strong support,” the actor said.

“As for Jensen, we say goodbye, but hopefully not farewell. Maybe someone else will buy the license. Maybe we'll make an animated series or finish the game. Elon Musk is a big fan, I think he has some money. Someone ask him!”

Toufexis' words follow last week's news that Eidos Montreal's new Deus Ex game had been canceled by Embracer Group, prompting a number of layoffs at the studio. The actor said he was “relatively true” this release would not focus on Jensen, saying his character's story “seems done.” Regardless, Toufexis still felt “angered” by the news and for those who have lost their jobs as a result.

“Video game companies right now are in a weird place. I hope it gets straightened out,” he wrote.

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In a separate thread on X, Toufexis further lamented the state of the industry, which has already seen thousands of layoffs since the start of the year. “Deus Ex got cancelled. This other massive game I was both acting and directing on got canceled and a third game I was acting and directing on got reworked and now starting from scratch, whole new team,” he wrote. “The video game world is a disaster zone right now.”

While the actor said he currently has a number of other games in the works, he expects these to also be canceled at some point down the line. Toufexis did not go into further detail as to what these projects were, but assured fans he still had “many irons in the fire”.

This year has already been an incredibly difficult one for the video game industry. Companies such as Microsoft, Riot and Unity have all announced layoffs.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, GDC published its 2024 State of the Game Industry report. Here, it said 35 percent of game developers had been impacted by layoffs in the last 12 months. Additionally, half of those surveyed said they are concerned more job cuts are on the way.