Today the team at Systemic Reaction announced that it's ending development of its dinosaur shooter Second Extinction, which never left early access.
The announcement comes with the mention that the decision has been taken "after thoughtful consideration and exploration." The developers mention that while the game is well-loved by players, it did not achieve the success they hoped and some show-stopping issues made it miss the previously announced full release date.
It appears that these issues made it clear that the small development team lacked the resources to hit the quality targets it was aiming for, and the investment needed to complete the game was too large.
Second Extinction will be delisted from all storefronts, but the silver lining is that the servers will remain active, so those who purchased the game will still be able to play it, at least for the time being.
The servers will be taken down "later next year" and the precise timing will be communicated down the line.
The development team also mentions that "the passion, talent, and skill of the team who worked on Second Extinction is being put to good use on other projects across Avalanche Studios Group." The message includes the request for "your understanding and compassion towards the team members involved in the project who poured their hearts into this game."
The community of the game has certainly felt that the game was being left to its own devices. While the overall reviews on Steam are "mostly positive," recent ones are "mostly negative," with many complaining that development had been pretty much abandoned.
Second Extinction was announced at the Inside Xbox livestream in May 2020, and it launched on Steam Early Access shortly after, with Xbox Game Preview in tow. It certainly seemed promising back then, and it's a pity to see that it didn't pan out as the developers expected.
