It’s never nice when a popular game, or any game for that matter, has to close its doors and shut down the servers. All the hard work that a studio has put into a game only for it to meet its demise for one reason or another. The latest game on the chopping board and forced to take a one-way bus journey to the video game crematorium is the survival shooter game Scavengers, which has been forced to close its servers next month.
Scavengers was created by former Halo and Battlefield developers who set up a studio called Midwinter Entertainment. The game is a free-to-play mix of players and mutated wildlife in a combination of PvP and PvE action. This news becomes even sadder when you release that the game hasn’t even left Early Access yet, something it entered back in April 2021 and clearly never left.
The news was announced by the game’s publisher, Improbable, with the studio saying that the game would not be leaving the pre-launch phase and would have its servers shut down instead on December 16. Improbable used Scavenger’s official website to announce the news via a statement that said, “The last few months have seen a decline in the player base, and whilst we explored many options to reinvigorate server population while the game is in early access, it became clear that it was unsustainable to continue development and the live service.” It does make sense when they put it this way, the game is unfortunately operating in a hugely competitive genre of games, and against more refined titles.
Improbable also wanted to say thanks to everyone who played the game during its lifespan on Early Access, saying, “We’re all proud of what we accomplished and are very grateful to every player who took the time to play, even if it was just for a short while.” Such kind words have never felt as meaningful; there is something very heartfelt in this statement that you can’t help but feel down. What this experience will do is set the studio up well for the next title, one where they can learn from the failures of this game and see if they can get it passed the Early Access stage.
This survival shooter game was first developed by Midwinter Entertainment before the studio was bought by Improbable in September 2019. The game generated a fair bit of hype in its early days as well, and it was received very well by fans, which makes it seem even odder that it met its demise so soon. You’ve got until December 16 to test it out anyway, before it finally calls it a day.
