After four painful months, Amazon Games has made the decision to cease development of its first title, Crucible. This decision likely comes as a shock to next to no one, as many deemed Crucible a failure at launch, and the remainder of Crucible's lifespan was spent being rebuilt behind closed doors.
Crucible was the first title to come from developer Amazon Games and was released on May 20 following a closed beta. The game is a free-to-play team-based multiplayer shooter where players choose from a roster of heroes with unique abilities for objective-based battles - though many complained of mediocre firefights and overly complex mechanics. Just over a month after Crucible was released, the game became so wildly unpopular that Amazon Games decided to return the game to closed beta on June 30. There, Crucible remained without a word from the developers as to when the game would reopen to the public.
Today, Amazon Games posted a final update on Crucible's official website. The update acted as a goodbye letter from the Crucible team as it delivered the news that development for Crucible would come to a halt. The developer stated that it had integrated every feature from the roap that it felt would enhance player experience, but it wasn't enough to provide a healthy and sustainable future for Crucible. Despite listening closely to player and improving the game accordingly, Crucible just didn't offer enough to keep players interested.
Within the next few weeks, Amazon Games will be holding a final playtest and community celebration for Crucible in-game and in the game's official Discord server. It is also offering a full refund to players who made any in-game purchases. After the celebration, matchmaking will be disabled, but servers will remain live for custom matchmaking for a bit longer. Crucible's servers will officially be taken offline on Monday, November 9, at noon PST.
With a launch as abysmal as Crucible's, it would be hard to find anyone who didn't at least suspect its demise coming. The decision to move Crucible back into closed beta was as if the developers put the game on life , before trying desperately to save it for the past several months. At least those who truly enjoyed Crucible will get to say one last goodbye before Amazon Games pulls the plug come November. After that, it seems likely that Crucible will fade into obscurity in the face of so many still-functioning shooters.
Source: Amazon Games
