YouTuber Jacksepticeye, whose real name is Seán William McLoughlin, recently shared a disheartening update in his video titled 'A Bad Month,' revealing the collapse of a project he had been deeply invested in: a Soma animated show. Soma, the critically acclaimed survival horror science fiction game developed by Frictional Games, which launched in 2015, holds a special place in Jacksepticeye's heart, often cited as one of his top favorite video games.
In the video, Jacksepticeye discussed the challenges he faced in his creative journey, mentioning several projects that either got canceled or didn't progress as hoped. He expressed his frustration over his inability to create content lately, leading to the revelation about the Soma animated show.
"I had a very large creative project that I was very excited to do, and — I don’t actually know if I’m allowed to say what it is — I’m just going to say what it is, and then if I’m not allowed to say it then this next part won’t be in it," he stated before disclosing the project. "I was planning to do a Soma animated show. Because I love Soma — Soma is top five, top 10 at least video games of all time for me. I absolutely love that game. It has one of the best stories ever in a video game."
Jacksepticeye shared his excitement and the year-long discussions with the developers, indicating they were on the brink of full production. He had even delayed playing the game in a single video to align with the show's announcement. However, the project abruptly fell apart after an unnamed party decided to take the project in a "different direction," leaving him "quite upset" and unwilling to delve into the specifics due to his frustration.
"We were making really great progress on that, and then it all just fell apart out of nowhere," he lamented. "I’m not going to go into too many of the specifics of what happened, because I’m quite upset about what actually went down. But, it’s more of a, ‘we’re going in a different direction,’ kinda vibe. And that really upset me."
The cancellation of the Soma animated show significantly disrupted Jacksepticeye's plans for 2025, leaving him unsure of his next steps. "I had planned a lot of my year around it. I was like, you know what? I won’t be able to upload as much because I’ll be focusing everything I have into that. But at least I’ll have a really cool creative thing to show off. And I’ll have something for you and we can talk about it and share it and be part of this thing together and have fun with it. And then it all fell apart."
Following Soma, Frictional Games released two more titles in the Amnesia series: Amnesia: Rebirth in 2020 and Amnesia: The Bunker in 2023. In a statement from July 2023, Frictional's creative director Thomas Grip mentioned the company's intent to shift focus away from solely horror games to explore other emotional qualities in their titles. "While all of our games have been horror in some way, what we really try to do is to get a kind of playable immersion," Grip explained. "We want to give the player some sort of immersive fantasy, be that being a [World War 1] soldier trapped in a bunker or a robot stuck at the bottom of the ocean. Horror games naturally are where emotions are front and centre. Games really excel at this. However, we are also exploring themes outside of making things spooky."
