Darwin Project developer Scavengers has announced that it’s ceasing development on the battle royale shooter. The game’s April update will be its last “for the foreseeable future,” but servers will remain online at least until the end of the year. In a farewell blog post, the developer said it’s been trying everything to combat the shrinking player base, but it couldn’t solve the problem long-term. “Over the past years, we saw a decreasing playerbase, and have been working hard on finding solutions –from a new platform development (PS4) to bringing new content (class system, battle passes, systemic maps, customizable craftwheel, new tiles, live events), spectator interactions extension, and continuous optimizations,” wrote Scavengers. “We have assessed all potential solutions and scenarios, but unfortunately, Darwin Project is unable to sustain itself thus forcing us to come to this very difficult decision.”
Darwin Project has seemingly always struggled. After a fairly successful beta, it launched on PC and Xbox One early in 2018. The game’s popularity on Twitch and elsewhere started fading soon after, however, forcing the developer to make the PC version free-to-play a month later. It’s a shame, too, because Darwin Project had a really unique mechanic with the show director, which would control the flow of the match by targeting specific players, creating danger zones to force players together and so on. It’s battle royale meets survival in a dystopian TV show wrapper. “We truly and deeply appreciate everything the community has put into the Darwin Project,” the developer added. “We received tons of passionate ideas and suggestions to improve the game. It shows how incredibly supportive you have been throughout this journey. We can’t thank you enough for your love and support over the past four years.” Scavengers will now move over to other unannounced projects.
