We’ve all seen plenty of new and long-running live service games meet their end over the last couple of years. Some were maybe too rough around the edges, too samey, too thin on the ground with content. However, even those that’ve offered up slick gameplay and novel concepts haven’t been safe from the chopping block, and that sadly now includes Spectre Divide. A 3v3 tactical shooter that, despite some early struggles, did a lot of things right, Spectre Divide will be shutting down within the next 30 days.
Two things surprised me about Spectre Divide when I first saw it and played it back in August last year. The first is that its core Duality mechanic, which lets you control two characters at the same time, was a breath of fresh air and something that felt truly unique in the tactical FPS game space. The second was that it was in a hurry. Less than a month after it was unveiled, it had fully launched on PC. Despite its enjoyable gameplay, it wasn’t exactly a smooth launch either, with complaints around monetization and the amount of content in the game.
Developer and self-publisher Mountaintop Studios hunkered down to essentially relaunch the game a couple of weeks ago with its Season 1 update, which also expanded the game’s reach to console platforms. However, in a new post from Mountaintop, the developer says that the increase in player counts wasn’t enough to keep the game – and the studio – alive, despite Spectre Divide coming out just six months ago.
“It’s been two weeks since we launched Spectre Divide Season 1: Flashpoint,” Mountaintop’s statement reads. “We’re incredibly grateful for the positivity and support that you’ve shown over that short time. Unfortunately, the Season 1 launch hasn’t achieved the level of success we needed to sustain the game and keep Mountaintop afloat.
“We were optimistic about the first week. We’ve had ~400,000 players play, with a peak concurrent player count of ~10,000 across all platforms. But as time has gone on, we haven’t seen enough active players and incoming revenue to cover the day- to-day costs of Spectre and the studio. Since the PC launch, we stretched our remaining capital as far as we could, but at this point, we’re out of funding to support the game. This means Mountaintop will be closing its doors at the end of this week.”
The statement also confirms that Spectre Divide will be taken offline within the next 30 days, that in-game purchases will be disabled, and that any purchases made since the start of Season 1 will be refunded.
“We wanted to deliver something innovative and original in a crowded genre that would bring friends together around unforgettable moments,” Mountaintop adds. “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.”
While I didn’t really expect Spectre Divide to become the next Valorant or be a Marvel Rivals-style breakout hit, I am surprised that it wasn’t more widely played and successful. It’s a real shame to see it bow out so soon after launching and after delivering a massive update full of new content and improvements.
The sad news of Mountaintop’s shuttering is the latest in a long line of closures or huge layoffs impacting both long-running studios and fresher names. Jar of Sparks, the studio spun up by former Halo veteran Jerry Hook, paused development on its debut game, BioWare underwent a restructuring with only a small team remaining to work on the next Mass Effect, and even some of the devs behind Marvel Rivals couldn’t escape layoffs.
