Zero Escape and Hundred Line Director’s New Game Canceled Before He Can Announce New Studio (UPDATE: Something’s Wrong)

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Kotaro Uchikoshi is one of the minds behind last year’s incredible visual novel and strategy game. The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academybut you may also know him for his work on the Zero escape And AI: Somnium files series. It turns out that Uchikoshi had been secretly working for a year on a new game at a new studio he founded, but the revelation of both of these pieces of information isn’t good news, as Uchikoshi took to social media to reveal that the game the team was working on was “suddenly canceled.”

Uchikoshi posted a long announcement on Twitterrevealing that he had formed a new studio called Crash Keys in March 2025 “specializing in the design, direction and narrative writing of video games”. He doesn’t go into detail about what happened, but he does say that the game the developers were working on was canceled and there are now no projects planned. The original plan was to announce the company alongside the canceled game in 2027, but now plans have changed and Uchikoshi is asking clients to suggest possible work for the team, lest the company “literally fall apart into a million pieces.” The company now has a website with contact information as Uchikoshi searches for a new project for Crash Keys.

My team and I might end up scraping by by selling round stones that we collect from the riverbank. So please, we beg you…help us!! You are our last hope!! We realize that this is a lot to ask, but with your support, we sincerely hope to fill this still empty “WORK” section with projects that we bring to life together.

The society’s list of members includes Uchikoshi as well as writer Akira Mine (One hundred lines, Danganronpa 2×2) and screenwriter Muri Sasaki (Zero escape, AI: Somnium files), so it appears to be a small team at this stage, all of whom participated One hundred lines the orbit of developer Too Kyo Games. Last year, CEO of Too Kyo Games and One hundred lines co-lead Kazutaka Kodaka said the game’s surprise success helped the company staying afloat after accumulating a lot of debt release the game; I hope something comes along that similarly saves Crash Keys now that his first project has been abandoned.

Updated, 10/14/26, 4 p.m. EST: It seems like this could all be one big hoax. Fans are speculating that the cancellation announcement might have actually been the kickoff for an elaborate ARG teaser for a new game, maybe even a new one. Zero escape. Indeed, when searching the Crash Keys website, people are finding what appear to be hidden messages, and while they look like gibberish at first glance, fans have been working to decode them. There is a reference to Santa Claus, which also seems to be a reference to the character of Santa Claus from the first Zero escape Thu. Elsewhere, one of the posts clearly states that the Crash Keys website is a “front.”

While fans were looking into these hidden messages, Uchikoshi posted a second tweet with a Q&A about the situation, clarifying that he was still part of Too Kyo Games, while also saying that he couldn’t say anything about the canceled game at this time. He argues, however, that the use of AI could have helped the game stay afloat if humans did the creative work while the AI ​​took care of the “tedious tasks.”

Q: Why was the game canceled?
A: I apologize, but I can’t go into detail either. But on a more serious note, I think it’s fair to say that major changes in the game development landscape may have played a role. And what caused these changes? Needless to say… AI (artificial intelligence).

Advances in AI have allowed people to create games at a much lower cost. To stay competitive, mid-sized game developers like us need to find ways to reduce costs. However, nowadays using AI to create games is generally frowned upon, right…? Unfortunately, in these circumstances we are fighting a losing battle.

It is often assumed that the use of AI could cause creators to lose their jobs. But the opposite can also be true. In other words, “not using AI” could also result in creators losing their jobs. If using AI had been an option, the project might not have been canceled. Of course, humans would have handled all the creative work, leaving only the tedious tasks to AI. This way we could have reduced development time, not personnel.

Oh, and just to be clear, this isn’t to say that the budget was the direct cause of the cancellation. I’m just saying that if we could have reduced costs further, things might have turned out differently.

Gn tech

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