Mage Spell Slinging Battle Royale Spellbreak Will Shut Down Early Next Year (UPDATE: Devs Acquired By Blizzard)

Fans of Proletariat’s Spellbreak are in for a bit of shock today. The company announced on its website that after four years, they’ve decided to cease the development of the game. Contrary to what we’ve come to expect from game closure announcements, this one doesn’t provide a lot in the way of details. There’s no timeline, nothing saying when specific functions will shut down, and the only date we have is for the closure itself, and it’s a bit vague, simply stating “as of early 2023”.

As for the rest of the post, it mostly discusses the company’s vision when creating the game and offers thanks to the players for supporting them. A bit more information was provided separately in a Reddit post, where the company’s CEO, Seth Sivak, discussed the challenges of creating the game as an independent developer. He mentions the challenges of trying to break through when competing with similar games made by more established developers and sustaining the game in the process. As he put it, they “could not get the escape velocity needed”. That said, he notes he doesn’t regret the decisions made in creating the game and thanks the community for their support.

UPDATE 6/29/2022: Not mentioned in the original announcement was the now revealed fact that the company behind Spellbreak, Proletariat, has been acquired by Blizzard Entertainment and the over 100 people on staff there will be transitioned to bolster World of Warcraft content creation. Comments on the acquisition came from many including President Mike Ybarra who said the purchase helps make "sure we have the resources to produce experiences our communities will love while giving our teams space to explore even more creative opportunities within their projects"