Zero Escape creator Kotaro Uchikoshi launches new studio Crash Keys after cancellation

Kotaro Uchikoshi has started a new game studio after a cancelled project left him out of work overnight.

The writer and director of the Zero Escape trilogy announced Crash Keys on 14 October. He said the studio opened in March 2025. He had planned to reveal it properly next year alongside its first game, but went public early instead, according to Eurogamer.

Uchikoshi said his team had spent about a year and a half developing a game before it was suddenly cancelled. He said he lost his job overnight as a result. The timing was forced. The announcement came months ahead of schedule.

In a post on his English-language X account, Uchikoshi warned that Crash Keys could “CRASH into a million pieces” without new work. He joked that he and his team may be forced to survive on nothing but cicada shells, in a post on X. The studio is now seeking partners interested in working with it or investing in its projects, and he warned it might struggle to stay afloat without that support.

The Crash Keys website names two other staff members. They are Akira Mine and Muri Sasaki. Mine has writing credits on The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, a strategy role-playing game with visual-novel storytelling, and the upcoming Danganronpa 2x2. Sasaki previously contributed to Zero Escape and AI: The Somnium Files, Uchikoshi’s detective adventure series about entering suspects’ dreams, as reported by Nintendo Life.

Uchikoshi co-founded TooKyo Games with Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka after finishing Zero Escape. That studio was built to let writers lead projects. Crash Keys is a separate venture under his own name.

For players, the names will be familiar. Uchikoshi is known for branching murder-mystery stories where player choices change the ending. His next game has not been shown. Work, for now, is the story.