The company Improbable has developed a technology called SpatialOS that aims to enable massive virtual worlds: The best game using this technology so far was Scavengers, a mix of PvE sandbox and class-based PvP. However, Scavengers flopped in early access on Steam. Now, Improbable has sold the studio behind it, and the development of Scavengers has been halted.
This is Scavengers on paper:
- Scavengers was released in early access on Steam on May 1, 2021. It is described as a “Survival-Strategy-Battleground,” a mix of sandbox PvE and class-based PvP. In principle, the game was originally intended to be inspired by “Halo 5 Warzone.” However, mass battles with thousands of players were planned.
- At its peak, it had 16,000 players at launch, but could not maintain this and early dropped to 850. In recent months, an average of 100 people were still playing it on Steam. The reviews were only mediocre at 59%.
- This sounds like Scavengers is just one of many failed MMOs and not worth mentioning further.
Scavengers was marketed as a “Survival Shooter”:
Scavengers was supposed to be the flagship of the MMO wonder technology
Why is the game so important? Scavengers was intended to be the new flagship game of the technology “SpatialOS”: This is a technology worth millions of US dollars and was supposed to revolutionize the MMO genre. It was supposed to send up to 9000 players into battle at the same time.
The technology was the biggest innovation and the greatest hope for MMOs in the last 5 years. At least that’s how investors saw it, who had invested an impressive 502 million US dollars in the technology in 2017.
Because with “SpatialOS,” even small teams should be able to develop massive, simulated worlds. The company behind it, Improbable, initially wanted to collaborate with indie studios to develop large MMOs: When that didn’t work out, they bought their own studio, Midwinter, and supported their game: Scavengers. Midwinter is a studio of about 30 employees, some of whom previously worked on Halo.
Scavengers was considered to be an MMO that truly had the potential to become a “big MMO” if it were only further developed. However, it will never leave early access on Steam.
Hope bearer gives up work on MMOs – Focusing on the Metaverse
This is what has happened now: Improbable has apparently given up the idea of making games more or less. They have now discovered the “Metaverse” as a new business field and are working on a project that will allow up to 10,000 players to take part simultaneously, to hold events or announcements in a virtual world.
Everything that does not serve the Metaverse is no longer the focus of the company, explains the CEO Herman Narula.
Running a gaming studio like Midwinter Entertainment no longer fits into the business plan. Therefore, Improbable sold the studio to Behaviour Interactive, the developers of Dead by Daylight. However, the actual game, Scavengers, was not sold.
Previously, Improbable had already sold its shares in the studio Inflexion Games to Tencent. The studio was working on a fantasy survival game “Nightingale.”
This is what Improbable is working on now, the Metaverse:
Scavengers is apparently being put into maintenance mode
This is happening to Scavengers: A planned console version is being canceled. The PC version remains live, but will not be significantly further developed. A “small team” is supposed to maintain operations – this strongly sounds like the dreaded “maintenance mode”; a kind of coma that MMOs are put into: The servers are still running, but not much else happens.
This is happening to the studio: Midwinter is now supposed to work on a new game for Behaviour Interactive. Details are not yet known. There are talks of “expanding Behaviour’s portfolio”.
All parties involved expressed themselves enthusiastically in press releases about how well everything had gone.
The dream of massive worlds is now dead
This is what’s behind it: As a fan of MMOs, one can only regret the entire development: Five years ago, the massive investment in Improbable was made public. The founder of the company painted a picture of huge simulated MMO worlds.
Five years later, practically all games using this technology have failed, without having gained much attention.
The site “PC Gamer” writes bitterly: For years, Improbable talked about needing a good game to showcase their technology. With Scavengers, they had one but did not know what to do with it.
Improbable seems to have completely devoted itself to the “Metaverse,” whatever that is:
Steam boss Newell says: Many who rave about the Metaverse probably have never played an MMO
