Less than two months after the formal launch of Amazon Games' first major PC game on Steam, Crucible, the company has chosen to yank it right out of Steam's store. Its developers at Relentless Studios (a wholly owned Amazon subsidiary) have announced plans to delist the free-to-play action-MOBA game from Steam starting tomorrow, July 1, while continuing to operate the game as a "closed beta" for anyone who already downloaded the game (or paid for one of its "founders packs" of cosmetic DLC).
In an announcement on the game's official site, its developers describe this change as a way to "help us focus on providing the best possible experience for our players." As far as remaining players go, however, that assurance may ring a bit hollow, since its delisting will likely reduce the available player pool from its already minuscule population (as of press time, it's only had more than 200 concurrent players once over the past week).
Although the game will continue to launch through Steam, starting at 12pm on July 1, new players will no longer be able to search for the game and freely download its client. Instead, they'll have to sign up to play the game at the official site, where they will wait for a closed-beta invite. (If you think you'll want to play the game eventually and want to save yourself some headaches, head to Crucible's Steam listing and add it to your library right now.)
Another action-MOBA bites the dust?
Arguably, this move is less about helping the game's developers alter and upgrade the game's contents and more about changing the way outsiders view its tiny player population. Relentless Studios, the wholly owned Amazon subsidiary responsible for the game, was already able to make drastic changes to the Crucible client in the past month, particularly by removing an entire game mode in order to better focus its remaining player population.
All images in this gallery were captured from real Crucible gameplay. Here, you have to capture a "hive heart," which appears in random places on the map (as opposed to pre-determined spots on a "lane"). Amazon Games Studio Melee for explosive damage. Amazon Games Studio Follow that up with a laser for good measure. Amazon Games Studio During my first testing session, I found myself mixed up by where the heck I was on the map a lot of the time. A lot of the terrain looks similar. Amazon Games Studio Need more bug-like NPCs in your life? Crucible has a lot of them. Amazon Games Studio When you're caught inside of your foe's protective dome, you can't get out, and others can't get in. Amazon Games Studio Tosca captures a Health Amplifier, which boosts all teammates' total health stats. Amazon Games Studio Tosca went through a yellow gas cloud to go invisible, which persists even when your hero uses dash or movement abilities. Use an attack, however, and the hiding ability goes away. Amazon Games Studio Kill this creature to get the heart inside and score a point. Amazon Games Studio Another angle of the NPC. Amazon Games Studio Read More – Source [contf] [contfnew]
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