Amazon’s free-to-play shooter, Crucible, was a flop. We gave the game a 48% in our review, and a month after release Amazon sent it back to closed beta. The plan was to continue development with feedback from the small group of players that had gathered around it, and then determine what to do next. I assumed it’d be released back into the public for another shot at success, but that’s not going to happen.
In a post on the official Crucible website, the studio announced that once it puts out the final feature on the roadmap, custom games, development on Crucible will end. Later, the servers will be shut down.
“We very much appreciate the way that our fans have rallied around our efforts, and we’ve loved seeing your responses to the changes we’ve made over the last few months,” wrote the developer, “but ultimately we didn’t see a healthy, sustainable future ahead of Crucible.”
The Crucible team will be moved onto other Amazon projects, such as MMO New World, which was going to release this year before being delayed to 2021.
There will be a final Crucible play session organized by the developers “in the coming weeks,” and then matchmaking will be turned off. Custom games (the last upcoming feature) will work until 12 pm Pacific on November 9.
Amazon is offering full refunds for any Crucible in-game purchases, and you can request one here.