While the basic premise of everyone vs. everyone goes back a far way, the success ofPUBG: BattlegroundsandFortnite: Battle Royaleset the course for the modern battle royale genre. Their success triggered a wave of competitors over the following years. This includes 2020’sSpellbreak, afree-to-play battle royalethat attempted to insert a fantasy setting into the popular subgenre.
Unfortunately, that unique twist and some positive reviews weren’t enough to achieve financial success. As a result, developer Proletariat announced its plans to end development and shut downSpellbreak’s servers early next year.
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Proletariat informed players of its decision in a blog post earlier today. The developer’s statement is short and quickly gets to the point, announcing the shutdown and thanking fans for their support. Proletariat didn’t give a specific date for shuttingSpellbreak’s servers down, only that it will happen in early 2023. The post then briefly outlines the developer’s vision forSpellbreakbefore again expressing gratitude toward the game’s fans. The post does not explicitly state why developers are shutting the game down, though one can assume the game’s low player numbers are the primary cause.
According to SteamDB,Spellbreakonly has about 96 players in-game as of this writing. That’s less than a full match in most popular battle royale games. It peaked at 5,504 players two years ago and has slowly declined since then.A few big spikes inSpellbreak’s Twitch viewershipnever translated to meaningful growth in popularity. While those numbers only reflect the game’s popularity on Steam, the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch ports likely saw a similar trajectory. As unfortunate as it is forSpellbreak’s remaining fans, the game’s impending shutdown seems to have been inevitable for some time.
For those unfamiliar with the game, Proletariat describesSpellbreakas a “multiplayer action-spellcasting game with exceptional movement and class customization that would give players the chance to unleash their inner battlemage.” It is a free-to-play battle royale where players arm themselves with magical gauntlets instead of guns. Developed over two years by a team of only six people, developers basedSpellbreak’s gameplay on classicshooters likeQuakeandUnreal Tournament. Meanwhile, the game’s setting and visual design drew from various sources, including games likeCastlevania,League of Legends,The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,and films and TV shows includingAkira,Princess Mononoke, andAvatar: The Last Airbender.
Spellbreak’s PC and Xbox releases saw generally positive reviews. While the PS4 and Switch versions saw a mixed reception, some still consideredSpellbreakone of thebest battle royale games on PlayStation. Unfortunately, that high praise never managed to attract a sustainable following.
Spellbreakis available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One
