Spectre Divide developer Mountaintop is taking the game offline, and the studio will be “closing its doors” at the end of this week.
The first season of the free-to-play tactical shooter, in which players control two bodies, only began two weeks ago. However, despite optimism during the first week, the developer hasn’t “seen enough active players and incoming revenue to cover the day-to-day costs of Spectre and the studio”, and Mountaintop is now out of funding.
“We expect to take Spectre offline within the next 30 days, but we plan on disabling new purchases and refunding money spent since Season 1 [launched] via the platforms,” Mountaintop’s CEO Nate Mitchell wrote, in a post announcing the studio’s closure.
“We pursued every avenue to keep going, including finding a publisher, additional investment, and/or an acquisition. In the end, we weren’t able to make it work. The industry is in a tough spot right now,” the CEO said, calling this a “painful update” to share with the Spectre Divide community.
“This has always been a passion project for us, born out of love for this genre. An indie team of insanely talented individuals who came together from around the world to build a game we believed in,” Mitchell continued.
“We wanted to deliver something innovative and original in a crowded genre that would bring friends together around unforgettable moments. We shook up the format, created a fresh art style and universe, and partnered with some of our heroes. All of us knew from the beginning that the odds were against us, but that’s what we signed up for.
“It was never a surefire bet. We did it anyway.”
On its PC release in September, we awarded Spectre Divide two stars.
“Despite its initially promising duality concept, tactical shooter Spectre Divide is held back by a hesitance to take further creative risks. The results are underwhelming,” reads Eurogamer’s Spectre Divide review.