Trivia / Metal Max

• Franchise Ownership Acquisition: Metal Max was originally owned by Data East. After Data East went under, the rights to the series eventually found their way to Kadokawa. Kadokawa would later sell the IP to Cygames, as part of the process of divesting its Kadokawa Games studio. The Metal Saga sub-series exists thanks to a brief period of time when the development team was separated from the rights to the "Metal Max" name.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The original Metal Max Xeno was delisted from the Playstation Network worldwide in August 2022 due to Kadokawa selling the series to Cygames. Xeno: Reborn remains available due to Kadokawa negotiating new publisher deals right before the sale happened.
• What Could Have Been:
  • There were plans for a Metal Max game on the Sega Dreamcast. Announced as Metal Max Overdrive before rebranding as Metal Max: Wild Eyes, the project was a victim of then-owners ASCII leaving the gaming industry. Metal Max Xeno is said to be a successor to many of the ideas in Wild Eyes.
  • There was a proposal for a crossover with Shin Megami Tensei by the director of Metal Max 3 that sadly went nowhere.
  • In an interesting parallel to Wild Eyes, the planned sequel to Metal Max Xeno: Reborn suffered the same fate. Metal Max: Wild West, initially announced as Metal Max Xeno: Reborn 2 as one of the three pillars of the series' 30th anniversary, was cancelled in 2022 with basically nothing known about it. While general development difficulties were cited, the game was likely a casualty of Kadokawa deciding to sell off the series.

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