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

The free-to-play 3v3 shooter Spectre Divide is set to be discontinued just six months after its initial launch in September 2024, and mere weeks following its release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Mountaintop Studios, the game's developer, will also be closing its doors. CEO Nate Mitchell confirmed the news via a statement on social media, stating, “Unfortunately, the Season 1 launch hasn’t achieved the level of success we needed to sustain the game and keep Mountaintop afloat.”

Spectre Divide Combat

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The team had high hopes following 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, Mitchell's 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.”

Mountaintop Studios explored every possible avenue to keep the game running, including seeking a publisher, additional investment, or even an acquisition. Unfortunately, these efforts were unsuccessful. Mitchell noted, “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 reports from October 2024, where Mitchell claimed that Spectre Divide “isn’t going anywhere.” He had assured that, “The servers aren’t shutting down, and the updates aren’t going to stop,” and maintained that Mountaintop had “the funds to support Spectre for a long time.”

IGN’s positive preview of Spectre Divide in August 2024 praised the tactical 3v3 shooter, particularly its innovative Duality system, which allowed players to control two characters during matches. Despite this early acclaim, the game's rapid shutdown aligns with a broader trend of unsuccessful live-service games, such as Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Sony’s Concord.