Spellbreak: Mage Battle Royale To Shut Down Servers Early 2023

On June 28th, the Spellbreak development team wrote a post on their website’s blog titled; On the future of Spellbreak. Here, the developers confirmed that servers for the multiplayer magic-wielding Battle Royale would be shut down as of early 2023. They did not specify the exact reason behind the shutdown, instead they took the opportunity to say “Thank you to the millions of players who have joined us in the Hollow Lands since 2018; it’s been an amazing journey.”

Though Spellbreak could be pegged as a small player next to the juggernauts that are Fortnite, Call of Duty Warzone or Apex Legends, the game did make a big and notable splash when it launched, raking in over two million players only five days after its official release. Indeed, it had a really cool draw. Where most other Battle Royales had you use guns, Spellbreak let you wield a wide variety of elemental spells, with diverse and dynamic effects. Even outside the BR genre, few games were so effective at providing this kinetic battle-mage experience, with its mix of aerial movement and aimed magical attacks.

Spellbreak’s players are disappointed of course, but the truth of the matter is that successful games that are making a lot of money don’t just get shut down. It’s clear that, over time, Spellbreak lost its substantial player base, and the studio decided they were better off moving on. Though the exact reason behind its waned popularity can only be guessed at, many fans expressed their understanding of the studio’s decision, since they themselves had stopped playing the game a while ago.

The general consensus seems to be that, though the gameplay mechanics were fun and well-designed, they didn’t like how it fits within the Battle Royale format. A common criticism was that the format resulted in annoying RNG drops and encounters and that it would have been much more enjoyable in a PVE format against mobs, or in more standard PVP matches. With that in mind, this seems to have been an unfortunate clash of genres, as players who enjoy Battle Royales preferred shooters, and those who liked this magic-based gameplay didn’t enjoy Battle Royales.

Following the shutting down of Spelbreak, developers Proletariat were acquired by Activision Blizzard to work on World of Warcraft.