Come September 3, development on Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem will be officially over. The dungeon crawler first released on PC in early 2020, and came to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in March 2023.
Wolcen Studio confirmed the news on its website, adding that the game will lose multiplayer functionality on that same day. The single-player mode will still be playable, sold at a “permanently reduced price” to accommodate for what’s being lost.
The developer explained that “foundational hurdles” prevent future improvements to the action-RPG, which it says can’t happen without a “complete technology overhaul.” As such, it’ll apply what it’s learned toward new projects guided by its first game.
“We’ve learned a lot from developing and supporting Wolcen,” it wrote. “But more than that, we have learned a lot from [players]. […] We’re excited about the future and cannot wait to embark on these new journeys, setting new standards for what we can achieve together.”
It’s a hard knock live-service
Foundational issues aside, the Wolcen news shows how tough it can be for newer online and live-service games, particularly when they’re a studio’s debut project.
For example, 1047 Games ended development on its first title Splitgate in 2022. Like Wolcen, it determined the shooter’s then-current state wasn’t really sustainable or a good fit for the live-service model.
Its next project, which is set in the same universe, will effectively be a stronger iteration of Splitgate with less live-service in it.
More recently, look at MultiVersus. Warner Bros.’ fighting game relaunched earlier this week after it’d shut down last year while still in beta. WB hopes the game can get it into the free-to-play space, but that market can be volatile.