// KOTAKU — GAMING
Zero Escape And Hundred Line Director’s New Game Canceled Before He Could Announce New Studio
Kotaro Uchikoshi is one of the minds behind last year’s incredible visual novel and strategy game The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, but you might also know him for his work on the Zero Escape and AI: The Somnium Files series. It turns out Uchikoshi had been working in secret for the last year on a new game at a new studio he founded, but the reveal of these two pieces of information isn’t good news, as Uchikoshi has taken to social media to reveal that the game the team had been working on has been “suddenly canceled.”
Uchikoshi posted a lengthy Twitter announcement, revealing that he had formed a new studio called Crash Keys in March of 2025 “specializing in video game design, direction, and narrative writing.” He doesn’t get into the specifics of what happened, but he says that the game the developers were working on was canceled and now it doesn’t have any projects lined up. The initial plan was to announce the company alongside the canceled game in 2027, but now, plans have changed and Uchikoshi is asking for clients to reach out with possible work for the team, lest the company “literally crash into a million pieces.” The company now has a website with contact information as Uchikoshi seeks a new project for Crash Keys.
Hi everyone, how's it going? Honestly, I'm not doing well at all… Why, you ask…? Because the game our whole team had poured our hearts and souls into for about a year and a half was suddenly canceled…!! I mean, I lost my job overnight. Talk about a bolt from the blue…
— Kotaro Uchikoshi Eng (@Uchikoshi_Eng) October 14, 2026
My staff and I might end up scraping by selling round stones we pick up down on the river bank. So please, we’re begging you… help us!! You’re our last hope!! We realize this is a lot to ask, but with your support, we sincerely hope to fill this still-empty “WORKS” section with projects we bring to life together.
The company’s member list includes Uchikoshi as well as writer Akira Mine (Hundred Line, Danganronpa 2×2) and scriptwriter Muri Sasaki (Zero Escape, AI: The Somnium Files), so it seems like a small team at this stage, all of whom have been in Hundred Line developer Too Kyo Games’ orbit. Last year, Too Kyo Games CEO and Hundred Line co-lead Kazutaka Kodaka said that the game’s surprise success helped the company stay afloat after accumulating a great deal of debt getting the game out the door; hopefully something swoops in and similarly saves Crash Keys now that its debut project has been shelved.
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