Cooled: Molten Games Shuts Down, Unreal 4 powered Blunderbuss Canned
Late last month, newly founded development studio Molten Games unexpectedly shutdown, leaving close to 60 employees without a job and an unannounced Free-to-Play title on the cutting room floor.
Originally founded in the middle of 2013, Molten Games was the amalgamation of several developers from key studios including Blizzard, SOE and Relic Entertainment. Backed by a multi-million dollar investment from NCSoft and the promise of a hands off publishing approach, the studio seemed destined for greatness.
So what happened? A requiem of Molten Games posted by one of its former developers, the studio unexpectedly lost all of its funding, prompting an immediate shutdown. As to why the studio lost its funding, that much is unclear. Speaking in regards to Molten Games accomplishments, the unnamed dev proclaimed Molten "to be a profound success".
The developer went on to divulge a bit more concerning Molten Games secret project "Blunderbuss" including revealing several never before seen videos of the game. Blunderbuss apparently utilized the brand new Unreal 4 engine and was set in a fantasy steampunk world. The featured gameplay appeared PvP in nature and showcased a few of Blunderbuss's characters including a steam powered siege tank and catapult.
While no official statement has been given regarding the future of the Blunderbuss IP, given the dissolution of Molten Games and the lack of funding, it's safe to assume the title has been shelved for the foreseeable future.
About the Author
Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play MMO title since 2009.
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Character introduction, like most games do, is a mix of cinematic with gameplay. For example the Reckoner looks so amazing in the first cinematic part (stepping on a dude, grabbing another and throwing him away), but so basic aoe/cleave attacks in the gameplay. Catapult did not seem so great either, stay safe - spam attack.
What i really liked was the siege tank and only because of his "deploy wings" ability, to create cover for his troops.
Gonna repeat, game did not looked bad, but did not seem a gem either. I actually think i would prefer something like Panzar over this one (they seem alike).