Seven years after Devolver Digital helped drag one of FromSoftware’s strangest games back into public view, we finally have a simple answer to why the publisher has not repeated the trick: it just did not sell enough.
Metal Wolf Chaos XD, released in 2019, was a remaster of Metal Wolf Chaos, a 2004 Xbox title that had become infamous among hardcore game fans. The setup alone sounds like someone made it up during mamak lepak: you play as US president Michael Wilson, who pilots a mech and blows through enemies in a completely ridiculous action game.
For FromSoftware fans, it was a proper deep cut. This was not Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, or Elden Ring. This was the weird, loud, very specific side of FromSoftware’s history that many players outside Japan only knew from forum posts, YouTube clips, and people going, “bro, you need to see this game.”
Speaking to Eurogamer, Devolver Digital communications director Robbie Paterson said the reason the publisher has not done more projects like this is directly tied to Metal Wolf Chaos XD’s performance. In short: the re-release did not move enough copies.
Paterson also pointed to the way Devolver handled the rollout. The company announced Metal Wolf Chaos XD, then launched it roughly a year later. Looking back, he believes the smarter move would have been to reveal it and release it immediately as a surprise drop.
Honestly, that makes sense. A game like Metal Wolf Chaos runs on chaos energy. It is funny, absurd, meme-friendly, and niche as hell. Give people a year to wait and the joke cools down. Drop it instantly during a showcase and suddenly everyone can buy into the madness while the timeline is still laughing.
The funny part is that Devolver did not chase Metal Wolf Chaos because of some massive campaign from fans. According to Paterson, the push came from Devolver CMO Nigel Lowrie, who had personally wanted to do something with the game. Devolver contacted FromSoftware, asked if anything could happen, and FromSoftware was apparently open to it.
There was also a very Devolver-style reason the project felt irresistible: the game was already a legendary oddity that barely reached players outside Japan, it was set in America, and its vice president character shared the name Mike Wilson with Devolver’s co-founder.
For Malaysian and SEA players, this story is a reminder that not every cult classic comeback is guaranteed to work, even when the studio name is strong. FromSoftware is massive now, but niche retro releases still need the right timing, platform visibility, and pricing to break beyond collectors and hardcore fans.
That matters because Southeast Asia often discovers older games through remasters, ports, and digital re-releases rather than original hardware. The original Xbox was never as dominant here as PlayStation, so a title like Metal Wolf Chaos would always be extra obscure for Malaysian players. A modern version should have been the perfect entry point — but if the launch misses the hype window, even a wild concept can get buried.
So if you are hoping for more strange FromSoftware revivals, do not hold your breath. Metal Wolf Chaos XD proved that the appetite exists among enthusiasts, but not necessarily at a scale that convinces publishers to keep digging through the vault.
Source: Eurogamer