A rumor that Ori 3 is actually in development has been making the rounds and it looks like Microsoft-owned Moon Studios won’t be in charge of it. Fans have been wondering whether there would ever be a sequel to Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which was released in March 2020 with high critical acclaim. While Moon Studios might have had plans for a third installment, creative director Thomas Mahler has suggested that the developer is creating an ARPG that has nothing to do with the Ori series.
Mahler thinks that another studio taking on Ori 3 would be “mad”
According to a leaker named Nweedle on Twitter, who has leaked Metroid Dread in the past, Ori 3 is currently in production and “is on the right track” in a tweet (posted above). As translated by Google, he writes:
Ori’s third installment is in development, I still don’t have any information from the studio that is in charge of this new installment, but it seems that the development is on the right track.
In a follow-up tweet, Nweedle credits another leaker named Arlan360oficial on Twitter who shared the rumor on his Sunday podcast.
The fact that there’s no information on which studio is developing Ori 3 suggests that Moon Studios truly isn’t responsible for the project. This falls in line with a tweet from Mahler in February 2023 that Moon Studios is committed to a “full-blown ARPG” instead.
In fact, if we take the words of Thomas Mahler at face value in another tweet he wrote in January 2023, he’s “not so sure that there will ever be another Ori game” and that he doesn’t think “there’s another studio mad enough to follow in our footsteps.”
In March 2022, Moon Studios was accused of being an extremely “toxic” workplace that enabled sexism, bullying, and casual racism. So then if the rumor is true, this all suggests that Microsoft wants to continue the success of the Ori games but without Moon Studios heading Ori 3.
