Islands of Nyne was once considered by fans to be a sci-fi hope for the battle royale genre. However, like many other games, the ambitious title has now effectively failed. Development has been ceased. How did it come to this?
What happened? Islands of Nyne, a battle royale game with a sci-fi setting, is dead. After years of development and an early access phase on Steam, the once-promising title lost more and more players over the course of 2018. Even a switch to free-to-play could not bring about a turnaround.
In December 2018, the developers from Define Human Studios finally announced the studio’s closure and the cessation of further development. Islands of Nyne will receive one more update and remain playable for the foreseeable future – but without any support.
Islands of Nyne – Developer studio closes, development stopped
What is Islands of Nyne? It is a futuristic battle royale first-person shooter. The game had been in development since late 2015 and was released in early access on Steam in July 2018.
With the sci-fi setting and corresponding features like jump pads or anti-gravity, it aimed to stand out from other representatives of the genre. Instead of the usual 100 players, 50 players compete for victory in Islands of Nyne. Players can choose between solo, duo, or squad modes.
Other features of Islands of Nyne included:
- Multiple game modes
- Character customization
- Elo-ranking system that ranks players based on skill
- Good gunplay
- In-game currency for skins and crates
- Leaderboards with match statistics
Islands of Nyne was initially planned for PC, but console versions were reportedly already in the works.
How Islands of Nyne developed on Steam: Islands of Nyne had an average player count of 2,311 concurrent players in July 2018, when it was released in early access on Steam – with a peak of 7,272 concurrent players.
The game itself was already popular during the preceding beta and was seen as promising by fans. We also reported on it at MeinMMO. The sci-fi setting was well-received, particularly the relatively large map with some interesting locations, as well as numerous weapons and, above all, the successful gunplay was praised by fans.
However, even then, many fans noticed that the game had a lot of potential, but it lacked one important thing – players. And this problem was never resolved.
A month after the Steam premiere, there was a player drop of nearly 88%. In September, this negative trend continued and hit an all-time low in October 2018. At that point, Islands of Nyne was only played by about 8 players on average at the same time, with a peak of 65 – worldwide, mind you.
There was a brief upturn in November and December, but this was due to a free-to-play weekend that took place from November 29 to December 2. The final switch to F2P on December 19 was able to slightly raise the player numbers again.
In the last 30 days, the game has settled at around 37 average players and a high of 162 concurrent players. Trend downward.
The game’s ratings also speak a clear language. While the overall rating is balanced (6,387 reviews), the recent ratings (276 reviews) are mostly negative.
That is why Islands of Nyne is now dead: Given such numbers, as well as the stopped development and support, it is clear that the game is now effectively dead.
The switch to F2P did not lead to a long-term increase in player numbers. However, for a match, 50 players are needed. These numbers have not been reached for some time. Consequently, matches are held with fewer participants and are therefore shorter, as the circle shrinks much faster and forces players into fights.
This does not necessarily provide fun for the fans. Additionally, there are numerous bugs, glitches, and partly poor technical performance – all aspects that were largely not addressed after the support was stopped and make the game unattractive in its current form for many.
This is how this development occurred: Many are still puzzled over the exact reasons. The joke still goes around that Islands of Nyne was the most promising sci-fi battle royale game that no one played.
However, players largely agree on what the causes are. Two main factors are primarily blamed for the game’s downfall:
- On one hand, it is the strong competition from Fortnite and PUBG and later Black Ops 4: Blackout, against which a small studio like this could simply not compete. Especially Fortnite as a F2P title likely played a significant role here.
- On the other hand, the developer DHS allegedly made many mistakes with the game itself.
What fans blame the developers for: Many fans agree that Islands of Nyne was one of the worst managed games ever.
- The poor communication from the developers is particularly frustrating. At times, there was silence for weeks on end, according to fans.
- Lack of transparency was also an issue: Players were often left in the dark for long periods regarding the progress of development. Many who invested in the game with good faith felt betrayed by this.
- No or poor marketing: The developers simply did not do enough to make the game more well-known. Instead of advertising, collaborating with streamers, or seeking sponsors, they just switched the game to F2P and then simply abandoned it.
- The price was also reportedly too high at around €25, given the strong competition.
- Many wishes and improvement suggestions from the community went unheard. This is believed to have led to even many loyal fans turning their backs on the game – despite its existing potential.
- There were also severe performance issues and significant bugs that went unaddressed despite persistent feedback.
Fans also emphasize that it is simply a vicious cycle of unfortunate circumstances and developer mistakes.
Islands of Nyne simply lacked the players needed to keep the game alive at the crucial time due to strong competition. With a lack of players, they did not have enough resources to manage and advance the project accordingly. Also, there were the mistakes of the developers, which were partly self-inflicted but also resulted from the lack of players.
This eventually led to the closure of the studio behind Islands of Nyne and the cessation of development.
