Spectre Divide: Free Shooter Closes Weeks Post-Console Launch

The free-to-play 3v3 shooter, Spectre Divide, is set to be shut down just six months after its initial launch in September 2024, and mere weeks following its debut on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. This unfortunate news also marks the closure of its developer, Mountaintop Studios. CEO Nate Mitchell confirmed the news via a statement on social media, expressing the challenges the game faced.

“Unfortunately, the Season 1 launch hasn’t achieved the level of success we needed to sustain the game and keep Mountaintop afloat,” Mitchell's post explained. The team had been optimistic after the first week, noting that the game attracted around 400,000 players with a peak concurrent count of approximately 10,000 across all platforms. However, the post continued, “But as time has gone on, we haven’t seen enough active players and incoming revenue to cover the day-to-day costs of Spectre and the studio. Since the PC launch, we stretched our remaining capital as far as we could, but at this point, we’re out of funding to support the game.”

Spectre Divide Combat

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Despite early enthusiasm, the game struggled to maintain its player base and revenue. Mountaintop Studios explored various options to continue operations, including seeking a publisher, additional investment, and potential acquisition. However, Mitchell stated, “In the end, we weren’t able to make it work. The industry is in a tough spot right now.”

Spectre Divide will be taken offline within the next 30 days, and any money spent by players since the Season 1 launch will be refunded. This announcement contradicts earlier statements made in October 2024, where Mitchell had assured that “the servers aren’t shutting down, and the updates aren’t going to stop,” and claimed that Mountaintop had “the funds to support Spectre for a long time.”

IGN’s positive preview of Spectre Divide in August 2024 praised the game's tactical 3v3 gameplay, particularly highlighting its innovative Duality system, which allowed players to control two characters during matches. Despite this, the rapid shutdown of Spectre Divide adds to a series of recent setbacks in the live-service gaming sector, including the underperformance of Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Sony’s Concord.