The online co-op action roguelike game Dragonspire was released in early access on July 15, but its developer, Starmi, is about to shut it down.
In the announcement, Starmi CEO Brian Grayson mentions that he has taken the difficult decision to remove the game from Steam and disable early access. That being said, those who purchase the title won't be left without support as they can ask for a full refund, while the developer is also asking Steam to issue such refunds automatically if possible.
The developer explains that he doesn't feel that the game is worth paying for, as unfortunately, the team did not anticipate the issues with the platform and technology that surfaced at launch. While day one retention was good, player counts started to dwindle afterward due to a series of problems including server instability and lack of regional coverage, causing Dragonspire to receive "mixed" judgment from about 30 reviews on Steam.
While the folks at Starmi worked hard to fix what they could, the attempt ultimately failed. Grayson is currently exploring new options for a stable platform, but it's a slow process and he doesn't want to see more people purchase the game and have a poor experience.
Unfortunately, the developer also ran out of funds, which means that members of the team will have to look for work opportunities elsewhere. While he doesn't make promises, Grayson is still going to try and find solutions in his free time over the coming months to keep the project alive in some form.
It's worth mentioning that Grayson is also currently trying to help his team members in finding work and can be contacted on the game's Discord server. Studios looking for developers are encouraged to get in touch.
At the moment, the game is still available for purchase on Steam, but it's likely that the option will be taken down soon. If you're curious to see what the game is all about, you can check out a trailer below.
Dragonspire certainly isn't the only game shutting down shortly after release. Recently, we saw it happen with Bandai Namco's Gundam Evolution and Square Enix's Echoes of Mana and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier.
