What’s happening in the world of fun

The huge company has borked its first gaming gambit.

When Amazon’s free-to-play shooter Crucible launched in May it sank like a tonne of bricks. It was so poorly received that a month after release, Amazon Game Studios opted to un-release the game, sending it back into closed beta on account of an abysmal player base. That would signal the end for most projects, but this being an Amazon project – they’re an incredibly wealthy company, don’t you know – the game was given a second lease on life.

But it was for nothing, because in October Amazon Game Studios announced that development on the game will end, and that servers will be shut down on November 9. Staff who worked on the game will be moved to other Amazon game projects, including its highly anticipated New World MMO.

“We very much appreciate the way that our fans have rallied around our efforts,” the studio wrote on the Crucible website, “and we’ve loved seeing your responses to the changes we’ve made over the last few months, but ultimately we didn’t see a healthy, sustainable future ahead of Crucible.”

“It was so poorly received that a month after release, Amazon Game Studios opted to un-release the game, sending it back into closed beta on account of an abysmal player base.”