For those who tune into our weekly podcast, you already know this; but for those who didn’t, we got to hang out with a very special guest yesterday: Mr. Elias Toufexis. Though gamers the world over will recognize Mr. Toufexis’ deep, gritty voice in a slew of popular series, including as Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, he is most popular for his work as Adam Jensen, the protagonist in Eidos Montreal’s cyberpunk hit Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its upcoming sequel Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
While we chatted with him about Mortal Kombat X, the new Guitar Hero and his kids’ obsession with Disney Infinity figures (a.k.a the children’s version of our Amiibo infatuation), he also opened up about the huge Deus Ex: Mankind Divided reveal that happened two weeks ago.
Eidos Montreal tickled fans with a three-day voyeuristic Twitch stream titled “Can’t Stop Progress”. Thousands of people poured into the channel, including Mr. Toufexis, who would amuse himself watching everyone try and figure out what this was all about: “They told me about it (the reveal). It was such a great idea. Maybe three days is a bit much, but it was really a great idea initially.” Of course, what with the internet being the internet, the reveal unravelled itself on day 2 when a Russian magazine leaked some images that subsequently opened the floodgate and ultimately ruining the entire stream: Eidos Montreal was forced to admit that the reveal was indeed a Deus Ex: Human Revolution sequel.
As much as he was amazed at the incredible reactions that reverberated through the gaming community upon the leak, he felt bad for the marketing team, stating: “It’s not fair, right? They worked so hard at getting that whole plan to come together and suddenly it goes nope! Bye!”. While us mere gaming consumers might not have the patience to withstand three days of teasing, Mr. Toufexis knew about Deux Ex: Mankind Divided for two years now, even when Leah interviewed him at the 2013 Montreal Comiccon: “Oh I was totally lying to you. So many people I lied to for so long”. Well played, Mr. Toufexis. Well played.
It got even harder when Deus Ex Universe was announced where he’d receive daily emails, tweets, and even some GameStop pressure, urging him to divulge a tidbit about a new Deus Ex game. How would he respond to fandom questions? “I know they’re making one, I hope they call me”. Sneaky, sneaky.
Check out the segment in it’s entirety above! And check out Podcast #18 for the whole interview with Elias.