"Spectre Divide: Free Shooter Closes Weeks Post-Console Launch"

In a surprising turn of events, the free-to-play 3v3 shooter Spectre Divide is set to shut down just six months after its debut in September 2024. The announcement comes shortly after the game's release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, signaling the end of not just the game but also its developer, Mountaintop Studios. CEO Nate Mitchell confirmed the closure in a heartfelt statement shared on social media today.

Mitchell elaborated on the situation, stating, “Unfortunately, the Season 1 launch hasn’t achieved the level of success we needed to sustain the game and keep Mountaintop afloat.” The game had a promising start, with around 400,000 players and a peak concurrent count of approximately 10,000 across all platforms in its first week. However, the post revealed, “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 the initial optimism, Mountaintop Studios explored every possible avenue to keep the game running, including seeking a publisher, additional investment, or an acquisition. Mitchell noted, “We pursued every avenue to keep going... 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 Mountaintop Studios has committed to refunding any money spent by players since the Season 1 launch. This decision contradicts earlier statements from October 2024, where Mitchell 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 gameplay and its unique Duality system, which allowed players to control two characters during matches. However, the rapid shutdown of Spectre Divide adds to the growing list of live-service game failures, including Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Sony’s Concord.