Spectre Divide shutting down six months after launch reminds us how hard it is to make a live-service game
Crikey, it’s still looking rough out there in the industry at the moment, isn’t it folks? Yesterday unfortunately brought the news that another online game is shutting down, with the studio alongside it. In this version of the story that we’ve heard all too often recently, it’s Spectre Divide, a tactical free-to-play first-person shooter whose whole gimmick is that you control your own character and a clone, allowing you to switch between them on the fly.
It was certainly a fresh take on the genre, but our former reviews editor Ed did wonder if that was enough to set it apart from Valorant or Counter Strike. As evidenced by developer Mountaintop Studios’ imminent closure only six months after the game launched, it was not.
The studio shared the news on the official Spectre Divide X (formerly Twitter) account, with a lengthy message explaining that the game hasn’t found enough growth in the two weeks since season 1 launched. Essentially, it all came down to the fact that there simply weren’t enough players and revenue to “cover the day-to-day costs of Spectre and the studio.”
As of right now, Mountaintop expect to take Spectre offline sometime within the next 30 days, with new purchases now disabled, and if you’ve spent any money on the game since season 1 launched you’ll be getting a refund too.
Mountaintop also noted that they did everything they could to keep the game going by bringing on a publisher, finding additional funding, or even getting themselves outright acquired. The post also points to some “tough stumbles” at Spectre Divide’s launch that may have contributed to the closure. There was clearly some strong feedback early on in relation to the cost of things like weapons and characters, which prompted the developer to apologise and make price cuts.
Still, there’s no denying that it’s a bad time for live service projects like this, even if you do all the right things, and have a genuinely unique idea. Spectre Divide has at least fared better than Sony’s paid hero shooter Concord, which lasted a whole three weeks before being taken offline forever. Here’s hoping all the Mountaintop devs can land on their feet.
