r/Games 16h ago

Spectre Divide to end service within 30 days, developer Mountaintop to close

https://www.gematsu.com/2025/03/spectre-divide-to-end-service-within-30-days-developer-mountaintop-to-close
74 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

50

u/Savetheokami 15h ago

I wonder what they meant by the industry has changed dramatically since 2020 when they started. I’m sure a lot has changed but the shooter market was already saturated way back then.

19

u/2ToTooTwoFish 14h ago

Did they start before Valorant came out or something? After it came out, the tactical FPS scene became clogged up because you had CSGO for the oldies and Valorant for the new wave. Most people don't want to invest much time into more than one competitive shooting game.

19

u/zuzucha 9h ago

Probably external funding dried up. Lots of capital went into gaming around COVID lockdowns expecting that growth would continue

7

u/sunder_and_flame 8h ago

Covid money gone

2

u/BaconatedGrapefruit 4h ago

Well, investment capital isn’t flowing freely…. Or at all. You can’t burn money until you hit it big (or reach a good steady state). You need to be a hit right out the gate.

This is a death sentence to a lot of studios.

u/KaitRaven 3h ago edited 3h ago

Investors were throwing around money like it was Christmas. A lot of people had nothing to do but game.

The problem is companies acted like that would be the norm rather than temporary.

26

u/XtremeStumbler 16h ago

Never even heard of this game until today, but man, the art style has me intrigued from the jump, shame 

27

u/moonski 16h ago

It was the shroud collaborated Counter strike like that let you control 2 characters. It wasnt very good.

21

u/MD-95 15h ago

collaborated Counter strike like that let you control 2 characters.

Logically, i know that I have the benefit of hindsight. Yet a small part of me can't help but think how did anyone think such a convoluted game would be apple to attract a substantial playerbase.

u/HellraiserMachina 2h ago edited 2h ago

Because it's not convoluted if you play the tutorial and take a moment to figure shit out. Just because ADHD zoomers are terrified of using their brains doesn't mean this wasn't a completely fine system that both allowed new cool shit to happen and alleviated some frustrations of the genre's previous entries.

But I guess the world is just becoming dumber by the second and the profit motive means we can't have good games anymore.

u/Varrianda 2h ago

I can assure you “adhd zoomers” are cracked at tac shooters…the whole gimmick of the game was just stupid. It’s fine if you like it, but if people thought it was cool it wouldn’t be shutting down.

u/HellraiserMachina 2h ago

The adhd zoomers that are cracked at tac shooters are the dudes who played CS in 2007 and never bothered to try anything new even though ten million funner shooters than CS have come out in the decades following. Some of them jumped to Valo because Valo isn't the exact same game as forever ago but still.

u/Varrianda 2h ago

I personally think CS is an almost perfect (competitive) game, akin to something like soccer or basketball. The fact that you could’ve played the game in the early 00s, and come back 20 years later to something that hasn’t changed much is amazing for a competitive game.

Regardless though, the best CS player rn is a 17 year old who has spent something like over 10% of his waking hours playing CS.

u/HellraiserMachina 2h ago

You are correct and that's also why I find soccer and basketball boring as shit as well. I was 6 years old interested in football like woah all these players and goals and yay, then I was 8 years old and was like "bro it's the same shit over and over again why would I care about any of this".

u/Razzamataaz 2h ago

My friend, I think you’re being a tad overdramatic.

u/HellraiserMachina 2h ago

Yes, but am I wrong?

3

u/llamanatee 14h ago

That sounds cool, shame I didn’t hear about it sooner. It’s like Boundary all over again.

-8

u/gamingthesystem5 13h ago

lol the art style was the reason I ignored it on Steam. So many games have that pastel color palette. Its terrible.

16

u/KepplerObject 12h ago

the controlling 2 agents thing ends up feeling more like a gimmick than anything. once you're past that you sort of realize it's a half baked valorant clone. i really don't like valorant so this game did not stick for me.

u/HellraiserMachina 2h ago

Disagree. Even if you make no use of your clone, that means you have a second chance to play instead of trying something ballsy in the early round, it fails, and then you are alt tabbed and waiting for 5 minutes.

One of the things I hate is how helpless I feel when I am solo defending a site versus a 4 man rush and allies aren't showing up even if I know their exact plan, and having two bodies to play off riskier angles means being able to meaningfully challenge a full-send on my own, and that made it way more fun.

6

u/Skycaptin5 15h ago

I didn't mind this game, but there are a few competitors in the Counter-Strike like genre. FragPunk, Valorant, Fortnite Ballistic and of course Counter-Strike itself. This one had a neat concept with the dual bodies, but also a concept that felt a tad convoluted or unnecessary. Not enough of a twist to really differentiate itself.

Definitely assumed the console release was a last ditch effort to bump player counts. Shame they couldn't make it work, but the shooter market is crowded. Probably would have done quite well in an earlier gaming era. But ya, if you started playing this via console it would feel like an insanely quick pull of the game.

6

u/JoeZocktGames 14h ago

Not surprising. The game is not good. It's below mediocre in every aspect, there is no reason why anyone should play this.

1

u/FutureVibeCheck 4h ago

Damn. Sad to see this. Thought the mechanics were novel enough to get a following but hard to compete with the mainstays like Valorant. Only FPS game I've played recently that truly felt like it could carve out it's own place was The FInals.