After Saying The Game "Wasn't Going Anywhere," Spectre Divide And Its Developers Are Closing Just Weeks After Season 1 Released

Free-to-play competitive shooter Spectre Divide just released its first Season, Flashpoint, a few weeks ago on February 25th. Mountaintop Studio's "Duality" gimmick may have been an interesting hook and partnering with pro competitive player Shroud could have been a good idea, but it doesn't seem to have panned out as well as the studio would have liked.

Honestly, things weren't off to a great start when the game hit early access back in September. The team's monetization plans were a wreck and were even called "delusional" by players. In my longer piece, I pointed out how the game's cash shop practices exemplified everything wrong with the F2P industry. These practices aren't unique to Spectre Divide by any stretch, but when you're a smaller team publishing the game yourself, you can't make these types of mistakes. You certainly can't make them when you're boasting about your game being the next "10,000 hour obsession" for players.

Just two weeks ago, Spectre Divide launched Season 1. That launch included a release on consoles. Mountaintop really needed that launch to go well and even said as much prior to the launch when they acknowledged low player counts (and said the game wasn't going anywhere) and delayed the season to avoid some of the technical issues that impacted their early access release and to "give it its best shot" at a comeback..

Apparently, the team already knows that the season's launch won't be enough.

In an announcement on the Spectre Divide site, Mountaintop says they were initially hopeful with high player counts in the first week, but after the second week the company acknowledged that the game isn't making enough to support itself and the company has burned through all of its existing funds to get this far. Saying the industry "is in a tough spot right now," Mountaintop was unable to find a new publisher or partner and will literally close its doors next week.

Refunds on all platforms will be given for any purchase made since Season 1 launched and the game will close within the next 30 days.

Honestly, that seems like an INCREDIBLY quick time range to things to go that far south and I'd be shocked if the leaders of the studio didn't already know this was coming for quite some time despite the entire team's passion for the project. There's just no way I really buy that two weeks into the season the game and studio need to close if it wasn't already basically closing a month or two ago. Giving a season just 2 weeks to "save" your game means the season never really had a chance to save your game to begin with in my estimation.