Jacksepticeye's Unannounced Soma Animated Show Falls Apart Unexpectedly

YouTuber Jacksepticeye, whose real name is Seán William McLoughlin, recently shared his disappointment over the cancellation of a Soma animated show he had been working on for a year. In his video titled 'A Bad Month,' Jacksepticeye expressed his frustration and sadness about the project falling apart unexpectedly.

Soma, a critically acclaimed survival horror science fiction game developed by Frictional Games, was released in 2015. Jacksepticeye, a fan of the game, had streamed it extensively and considers it one of his top favorites. His passion for Soma led him to embark on creating an animated show based on the game.

In the video, Jacksepticeye discussed the challenges he faced creatively, mentioning several projects that either got canceled or didn't progress as hoped. He revealed that the Soma animated show was a significant project he was excited about, having spent a year in discussions with the game's developers to bring it to life.

“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 said. He went on to explain his love for Soma, describing it as one of the best stories in video game history.

Jacksepticeye had planned to play the entire game in one video but held off in anticipation of announcing the animated show. However, the project abruptly fell apart when an unnamed party decided to take it in a different direction, leaving Jacksepticeye deeply upset and without specifics to share.

“We were making really great progress on that, and then it all just fell apart out of nowhere,” he said. “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 uncertain about his priorities and future projects. “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,” he lamented.

Following the release of Soma, Frictional Games released two more Amnesia titles: Amnesia: Rebirth in 2020 and Amnesia: The Bunker in 2023. In July 2023, Frictional's creative director Thomas Grip mentioned the company's intention to shift focus from horror to explore other emotional qualities in their games. “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 stated, emphasizing the company's interest in creating immersive experiences beyond just horror.