The hero brawler Bleeding Edge will no longer receive updates. The developers have decided not to continue working on the new online game after it was released in 2020. Instead, they are now focusing on upcoming games.
What was Bleeding Edge? The new online game was introduced at E3 2019 with an interesting trailer and was released in March 2020 exclusively for PC and Xbox One. It was developed by Ninja Theory, the creators of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and DmC: Devil May Cry.
The game focused on PvP battles in a 4v4 arena, where players competed against each other with different heroes. Each hero had their own unique abilities. The setting took place in a post-apocalyptic, futuristic world.
What was the problem? Apparently, the game could not retain its players. On Steam, Bleeding Edge started with only 828 peak players at its release in 2020. This number kept declining. In the last 30 days, only four players played on average and eleven at peak (via SteamCharts). The player numbers on Xbox are not known.
Although the developers themselves showed only positive comments from their players in a trailer, there was also criticism at that time. On MetaCritic, for instance, the game only achieved a score of 61, and Trusted Reviews noted that while Bleeding Edge is fun, it lacks the depth to maintain interest over time (via Metacritic).
Can I still play? Yes, the servers are still online for now. Only new updates are no longer available.
Focus on new games
What are the developers working on instead? In the studio’s official tweet, it is stated that the focus is now on new projects, including Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. This will be the sequel to Senua’s Sacrifice, which has already been announced as an exclusive game for Xbox Series X.
Additionally, Project Mara and The Insight Project are on the agenda. Project Mara will be an experimental psychological horror game, while The Insight Project aims to explore mental health through video games (via GamesRadar). Both approaches are quite fitting, given that Senua’s Sacrifice already centers on mental illnesses.
Bleeding Edge is not the first game to die in 2021. The MMO Life is Feudal: MMO was shut down shortly before. The shutdown was preceded by a legal dispute with the former publisher, which the developers could not afford any longer. However, it lasted at least longer than Bleeding Edge.
Moreover, the hero brawler is unlikely to be the last game to die in 2021. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch has already a hunch about which MMOs will not survive 2021.
