Spectre Divide is a competitive 3v3 multiplayer title from MountainTop studios which consisted of industry veterans from Respawn Entertainment, Epic Games, Riot Games and other notable developer companies. The game was released in September of last year on PC and had an initial surge of about 400,000 players playing it at one point however it soon dwindled to around a thousand.
What Made It Unique
As mentioned before it is a 3v3 tactical, first person shooter with an interesting twist, players can equip two operators to play as instead of just the one. They can choose to switch between the two operators they picked at will and will automatically switch to the second character on death.
This mechanic no doubt fuelled tons of creativity into the tactical shooter scene and it can be said that this feature alone was enough for the initial surge of players to the game. Other than this unique feature, there were also interesting operators or specialists to choose from.
Additionally players can choose where to place their second operator further opening up the potential of high level play and creates an incentive for teamwork and of course opens up new possibilities in terms of creative play.
Inputs From Big Names
Various big name streamers like Shroud, itzzTimmy, Tarik and Sacriel also announced they were investing in the project and helping with the development of the game. Notably providing inputs into the gun play, special abilities movement etc.
However even names like these from notable championship winners to famous streamers could be enough to make players stick and a letter was given to the employees at the studio by CEO Nate Mitchell broke the news. He stated that the low number of players even after the launch of season 1 was one of the biggest reasons for the closure.
Further stating that they tried their best in trying to retain the game by finding a publisher, more investors and even seeking an acquisition to keep the jobs afloat but alas with the remaining capital stretched thin they could not avoid this drastic decision.
Backlash And Confusion
While some are saddened by the shutdown of yet another interesting and unique looking game, others have taken to social media to lay out the root cause of this closure and the effects it’s bringing to the people who are out of jobs.
A lot of the discourse is focusing on Shroud, one of the biggest streamers on twitch and the person who said he was “making the game” by working with MountainTop Studios for some number of months. Yet he only played the game for 35 hours as per metrics on twitch.
A lot of people are mentioning that even though he claimed he “made the game” with Spectre Divide he was showing a lot of interest for Steam’s new free title that was unannounced and yet garnered over 600,000 players on Steam. Many pointed out that Shroud played over 100+ horse of Deadlock over his own game.
Conclusion
While it is quite odd to name your youtube video “We’re making a Game” and then not play said game for several months, many have pointed out that Shroud is an investor and likely doesn’t have an obligation to play the title and there are other big streamers too who should also be called out if Shroud is too.
Many have attributed the closure of the studio to the drastically changing needs of players in the free to play tactical FPS genre. Having a certain vision of a game and working on it for a few years only for it to be completely obsolete by the time it releases is less the fault of developers or investors and more the fault of the industry and shifting trends.
In truth Shroud cannot be blamed for the closure of a studio and loss of jobs, there is no way to give an answer to the question “What could’ve been done?” as we can never know the internal decisions and direction the game was gonna take which ultimately lead to its demise.
