Amazon Ending Development On Crucible, Team Will Shift To Other Projects

Less than half a year after its launch -- and three months after its un-launch and removal to closed beta -- Amazon Game Studios has announced that it is pulling the plug on Crucible. The news broke late Friday on the Crucible website, where the developers said that after "evaluat[ing] the feedback we've heard from you, paired with the data we've collected," they "didn’t see a healthy, sustainable future ahead of Crucible."

The game's final update, the addition of custom games, will be shipped soon. At an unspecified later date "in the next few weeks," matchmaking will be disabled, and only custom games will be available. The servers for those will be shut down at noon Pacific on Monday, Nov. 9. You can obtain a full refund for your purchases in Crucible via the support section of the website.

The Crucible development team will be transitioning over to New World "and other upcoming projects." The prospects for that game are also somewhat in doubt, given its shift in scope during its long gestation period and its launch delay from August into next year. Amazon Game Studios previously cancelled PvP game Breakaway, making the company 0-for-2 in its attempts to produce a game.

So what else does Amazon have cooking? Former Sony Online Entertainment and Daybreak Game Company CEO John Smedley is working on an unannounced project for the company and Amazon also has a hand in the development of Leyou Technologies and Athlon Games upcoming Lord of the Rings MMO game. Still, at this point, it's hard to feel optimistic about anything coming out of the company, which seemed to have such promise after its big reveal four years ago.