Mysterious ‘Project Mephisto’ Referenced in Gamescom 2018 Award Nominees List

The Gamescom Award 2018 nominee list is officially up for perusal, and there’s a very peculiar title included in the mix.

Under the “Platform” category, for “Best Console Game – Sony PlayStation 4,” there are two familiar sights: “Marvel’s Spider-Man” and “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.” In addition, there’s a third game: “Project Mephisto,” which is denoted as a working title. It’s the only outlier on the list, as the rest of it is comprised of titles we’ve either seen in action or learned plenty about, but this is a curious addition that begs further investigation.

“Project Mephisto” calls to mind the projects Sony has worked on in the past with codenames that include “Project” before the subject, such as the working title for PlayStation VR, “Project Morpheus.”

There are few details online to support whatever this project name may be referring to, but EGMNow has a few ideas: “Project Mephisto” could point to one of the “multiple” upcoming “Diablo” projects the company announced in a recent teaser. Given that Mephisto was a Prime Evil players are tasked with defeating in “Diablo II,” it’s highly possible this could be a reference to a new entry in the “Diablo” series.

Similarly, the publication surmises that it could be a PlayStation 4 port of an indie game called “Vagante” from developer Nuke Nine, which originally went by the “Project Mephisto” moniker in a Sept. 2013 post via TIGSource Forums.

Variety reached out to Sony, who did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

Gamescom 2018 is set to begin Tuesday, Aug. 21 at 9:00 a.m. CEST through Saturday, Aug. 25 at 8:00 p.m. CEST. It will be live-streamed from Cologne, Germany, as well as several panels and taking place over the duration of the show.

Here’s a complete schedule for Gamescom 2018:

• Tuesday, August 21 – 9:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. CEST (press/trade only day)
• Wednesday, August 22 – 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. CEST
• Thursday, August 23 – 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. CEST
• Friday, August 24 – 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. CEST
• Saturday, August 25 – 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. CEST