Eidos Montreal, the developer behind the cyberpunk hit Deus Ex: Human Revolution, announced its new Dawn Engine on Thursday, which is “designed exclusively for PCs and the new generation of consoles.”

“Our ambition is to build upon and improve both the visual and immersive artistry in our games, whilst also strengthening both the gameplay and storytelling experiences we strive to create,” wrote Eidos Montreal’s Sacha Ramtohul.

The new engine is based off of a heavily modified version of IO Interactive’s Glacier 2 engine. Eidos Montreal had previously used already existing game engines for their games, and the new Dawn Engine is the first that the studio has developed itself.

Deus Ex Universe is not an MMO

Interestingly, Eidos Montreal used the engine announcement as an opportunity to talk about their future “Deus Ex Universe” project, reassuring fans: “Some of you have had concerns that “Universe” meant “MMO”. Rest assured, it does not.”

Aside from a Director’s Edition of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which made minor gameplay tweaks and seamlessly integrated The Missing Link DLC into the story, the only Deus Ex title released in the last few years was a game for mobile devices.

“Deus Ex Universe is the name we are giving to the fictional world and the rich lore we are creating for it, which will of course include core games, as well as any other projects that will help bring the world of Deus Ex to life,” writes Ramtohul. “We won’t go into too much detail for now, but what we envision is for our projects to have meaningful ties to one another, in order for them to strengthen and deepen your experience within this Universe.”

The last few years have seen a few attempts by studios to turn hit single-player franchises into MMOs. These include Bethesda Softwork’s The Elder Scrolls Online (based on the series that included Oblivion and Skyrim) and BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic (based on the Knights of the Old Republic games).

While both games achieved modest success, they also received a strong backlash from fans, many of whom wanted a new single-player game rather than an MMO. Eidos Montreal’s statements likely had these players in mind.