However, 2000 also saw Ion Storm's Austin studio emerge and release Deus Ex, which brought first-person shooter and RPG elements together in a manner never before seen and remains one of the best PC games ever made. The game was the pet project of development veteran Warren Spector, who had joined Ion Storm in 97.

While the Dallas office fell into disarray, Eidos subsequently picked up the rights to the Thief series in the aftermath of Looking Glass's sad closure and set Spector to work on this with his Austin studio. Ion Storm Austin subsequently released Deus Ex: Invisible War last year, which polarised opinion among the Deus Ex faithful, and the well-received Thief: Deadly Shadows - both titles appearing on PC and Xbox.

Then at the end of 2004 Spector resigned, while Deus Ex: Invisible War executive producer Harvey Smith joined a Midway studio elsewhere in Austin, and, although there was still potential for more development, the studio's fate seemed - as proven - to be drawing toward an inevitable close. With it, the sometimes-brilliant but never less than engrossing soap opera that was Ion Storm finally ends.