A New Myst Game Died After Just Four Months

Four months. That's how long Cyan Worlds spent building a prototype for what would have been the first new Myst game since 2005's Myst V: End of Ages. The project, codenamed Anglerfish, never made it past the pitch stage, and now the studio has released the publisher-only teaser trailer so fans can see what almost was.

"Over a year ago, we spent about four months developing a new prototype for a new game in the Myst universe," creative director Eric Anderson said in a YouTube video posted by the studio. Development director Hannah Gamiel explained that "for a variety of reasons" the project "couldn't move forward at the time," but that the team wanted to share the teaser because they're proud of the work. The key quote from the announcement:

The prototype (and this teaser trailer made for it) were purpose-built for publisher-eyes only. For a variety of reasons, this project couldn't move forward at the time, BUT we're still proud of the work the team did, so we're sharing the teaser for the prototype with you all now.

The teaser itself looks surprisingly polished for a four-month prototype. Built in Unreal Engine, it shows a man in a green cardigan recruiting you to search a mansion for one of the series' iconic books, which he insists must stay closed. Things spiral from there: strange tentacle-like growths appear, the mansion starts breaking apart, and the book-requester descends into full-blown screaming about ages and death. The character animations in particular stand out, and the whole thing carries that specific Myst atmosphere of beautiful spaces hiding something deeply wrong.

Twenty years without a sequel

Myst hasn't had a proper new entry since 2005. Cyan released a well-received remake of the original Myst in 2021 and followed it with a reimagined Riven in 2024, but neither was a new story. Anglerfish would have broken that two-decade drought, and watching the teaser, I think it could have been something special. The shift toward a more horror-adjacent tone, with a voiced NPC who clearly can't be trusted, feels like a smart evolution for a series that always thrived on atmosphere and unease.

But the reality behind the cancellation is hard to ignore. Cyan laid off roughly half its team, around 12 people, in March 2025. The studio said at the time that its top priority was securing financing for its next project. Riven's remake, despite strong reviews, reportedly didn't sell well enough to prevent those cuts. A small studio pitching a niche sequel to publishers after layoffs and soft sales is an incredibly tough position, and the "variety of reasons" Gamiel cited likely boils down to nobody writing the cheque.

Anderson said Cyan is "still hard at work on new games and experiences in the Myst universe" and plans to share details when they can. I hope that's true and not just the kind of thing studios say while searching for a lifeline. Myst built PC gaming as we know it. Seeing its creators reduced to sharing what-could-have-been trailers for projects that lasted less time than a single battle pass season stings more than any puzzle in the series ever did.