In June 2022, CROWZ launched on Steam, a military shooter with high ambitions: The developers wanted to create a massive free-to-play game that mixes gameplay from Battlefield and CoD: Warzone. A year later, in August 2023, the team faced the ruins of their game and an upset player community.
What was CROWZ? We introduced “CROWZ” in August 2021 on MeinMMO, back then the game had just appeared on the radar and wanted to start a beta in December 2021:
- CROWZ was a military shooter from South Korea developed with the Unreal Engine 4. In South Korea, the team had already seen success with “Sudden Attack”
- The shooter focused on vehicles like tanks, helicopters, and armed jeeps
- You could control mercenaries and fight on a large battlefield for resources like Q-on in an open world
Shooter CROWZ dies on Steam in a few months
How did it go on Steam? Not well at all.
- At the release of the game in June 2022, the shooter had 571 players. But they disappeared quickly
- By September 2022, there were only about 200 players online on average, and the South Korean team could not retain them
- Starting from December 2022, CROWZ had already dropped below 100 players and never managed to recover from that
Developers end CROWZ: We will return with better games
This was the decision of the devs: Already in May 2023, the team decided to end the shooter CROWZ (via steam). On August 29, it was supposed to be over.
The team explained that they had tried to develop CROWZ “for the love and interest of our mercenaries” since the beta test in November 2021. But they decided that it was better to end the game. They could not provide a “better service” anymore.
They said goodbye with “We will return with better games at a later time. Thank you.”
“Good luck and never come back!”
These are the reactions: The comments on Steam are merciless.
There are some who really liked the game: They are angry at the developers for crashing a “so beautiful battle royale” game. They accuse the developers of providing “one of the worst developer performances ever” and having led one of the “best battle royale games” to its demise in just a few weeks.
Others react in rage, calling the developers “frauds” and wishing them bankruptcy: “Never make a game again, good luck and never come back.”
Others congratulate themselves for never having invested money in the game: CROWZ was “pay to win,” they say. An “aggressively monetized game with an endless amount of bugs.”
“The best day of my life when I got the skin with a 1% chance”
The Steam reviews of CROWZ turned deep red after the announcement of its end. But among all the angry comments, there are a few voices saying they loved the game and spent many hours on it. They always looked forward to news about the game.
One player writes about the game that many consider a pure attempt to make quick money: He spent all his money to make his dream come true and get a skin that had only a 1% chance: That was the best day of his life when he got the skin.
He urges the developers not to delete their beautiful game. It would surely still be popular. And if they have to delete it, then please not the player accounts.
The relationship of Steam players to games is quite peculiar:
Player spends 7900 hours in free-to-play MMORPG, writes devastating Steam review
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