Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'

Free-to-play FPS Spectre Divide will close within 30 days, and developers Mountaintop Studios will be disbanded by the end of the week. The news comes only six months after the promising 3v3 shooter launched on Steam, and just a fortnight after its first season launched alongside a new PlayStation version.

In a letter signed by Mountaintop Studios CEO Nate Mitchell and the team, low uptake since the launch of that first season is one of the reasons for the closure. "Unfortunately, the Season 1 launch hasn't achieved the level of success we needed to sustain the game and keep Mountaintop afloat," the letter reads.

It also alludes to the game's player count trajectory: it debuted with around 400,000 players in its first week and a peak of 10,000 concurrents, but admits that these figures have steadily dropped since launch. On Steamcharts.com, the game has a peak of 1,083 players in February, with a 263.1 average.

"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," the statement says.

"We pursued every avenue to keep going, including finding a publisher, additional investment, and/or acquisition. In the end, we weren't able to make it work. The industry is in a tough spot right now."

The full letter can be read here, or on X:

Spectre Divide was a novel take on the tactical shooter in the Counter-Strike and Valorant mould. It was a 3v3 affair, but each player also controlled a body double. Morgan was enthusiastic back in September, writing that it's "so fun I can't stop thinking about it". The general population did not share his enthusiasm, possibly because the game was a little unusual, as Mountaintop proudly acknowledges.

"We wanted to deliver something innovative and original in a crowded genre that would bring friends together around unforgettable moments," the letter continues. "We shook up the format, created a fresh art style and universe, and partnered with some of our heroes. All of us knew from the beginning that the odds were against us, but that's what we signed up for. It was never a surefire bet. We did it anyway."

New purchases will be disabled imminently, and all purchases made since the launch of Season 1 will be refunded. More info on how that will happen will come soon.

Spectre Divide is the latest in a string of dismal failures in the live service space, demonstrating how difficult it is to break into a market already dominated by heavyweights like Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite and Valorant.