Tencent's free-to-play co-op shooter Synced is closing just a year after it launched

Synced screenshot
(Image credit: Next Studios)

Synced, the free-to-play co-op shooter released by Tencent's Level Infinite publishing brand, is closing in September, just a year after its launch in September 2023.

An open beta for Synced ran from December 2022 into January 2023, after which it effectively went away until the 1.0 release in September of last year. Two seasons followed, but the launch of the second season in March—entitled Cyber Safari—was the last update on Steam prior to the closure announcement. The Synced Twitter feed has been silent since then as well.

"Thanks so much for playing Synced and being a valued member of its community, but we regret to inform you that the game will be retired this September," Level Infinite said in the legally-precise shutdown update. "Synced will be terminated with effect from 11:00 on September 9, 2024 (GMT+8) (“Termination Date”). Please note the actual date and time of termination may differ by region."

Here's the regional schedule, if you happen to be playing Synced and want to hold out until the last possible second:

  • 19:00 on September 8, 2024 (GMT-8)
  • 03:00 on September 9, 2024 (GMT+0)
  • 11:00 on September 9, 2024 (GMT+8)

A reason for the shutdown wasn't provided, but it's not too hard to suss out: The unfortunate fact is that it's almost a certainty you aren't playing Synced. The game achieved a peak concurrent player count of over 10,000 immediately after launch, but it wasn't able to retain its audience: Only a few hundred people were playing at any one time by the end of 2023, according to SteamDB, and the concurrent player count hasn't risen above double-digits since mid-April.

User reviews on Steam are not great either. Synced overall rating is "mixed," while recent reviews are "mostly negative," driven by complaints about long queue times and persistent bugs.

YouTube YouTube
Watch On

Synced looked competent when the open beta was announced in 2023 but not especially original or interesting, and that's a big disadvantage when you're trying to muscle into a genre that's already pretty crowded. That's not necessarily the kiss of death—The First Descendant, a "dollar store Destiny" that holds an even lower Steam rating than Synced, is currently doing very well for itself—but it's not a great place to start, either.

Anyone who is still playing Synced will be able to keep at it, "and use any existing in-game items," until the end comes.

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Read more
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'
Level Zero: Extraction image - woman in an HEV suit looking at a holographic image being projected by her presumably very expensive wristwatch
Just two weeks after launch, 'extraction survival horror' game Level Zero: Extraction ends development: 'It's no longer feasible for our relatively small teams to sustain the game'
Dauntless, the monster hunting game we had before Monster Hunter came to PC, will shut down in May
xdefiant
XDefiant's final content patch is unexpectedly massive: 'Not all journeys end well but we can all be proud of what we accomplished'
Dark Alliance
Ill-fated co-op slasher Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance disappears in February, though will still be playable solo
marvel rivals characters screenshots
Two days after laying off US-based developers, NetEase says Marvel Rivals has surpassed 40 million players
Latest in FPS
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'
Masked Counter-Terrorist in helmet in forefront with sunglasses and beret-wearing CT in background touching headset
There's hope yet for Classic Offensive after its Steam rejection: The team behind the Counter-Strike 1.6 revival mod is in touch with Valve about its 'concerns'
Destiny 2 Rite of the Nine: The Emissary, massive, ominously standing at the edge of a water basin.
Oops! Bungie rolled out Destiny 2's Rite of the Nine event three weeks early, and new loot is already dropping
A soldier looks out over the Verdansk map, as a single tear rolls down his cheek.
The original Verdansk map is returning to Call of Duty: Warzone, to celebrate which we get a soldier crying to Nat King Cole
FragPunk codes - A close-up shot of a mercenary wearing a mask with glowing eyes.
All FragPunk codes and how to redeem them
An evil-looking demon with red eyes and horns
You can theoretically beat Doom: The Dark Ages without using a gun, but 'You'd have a hard time, that's for sure,' says the game's director
Latest in News
Dante smiling
'No AI used': Netflix's Devil May Cry showrunner confirms that all of Kevin Conroy's lines were recorded before he passed
Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card on different backgrounds
AI will be crammed in more of the graphics pipeline as Nvidia and Microsoft are bringing AI shading to a DirectX preview next month
Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards alongside an RTX 4090
Nvidia says it's sold twice as many RTX 50-series cards as RTX 40-series in the first 5 weeks. I'd bloody well hope so given there was essentially just the RTX 4090 for competition
AMD Radeon RX 9070/9070 XT graphics cards with artistic renders of reference design cards circled
Looks like a reference design AMD RX 9070 XT card has shown up in China, but let's not get carried away with thoughts of MBA cards just yet
Concept art of WoW's upcoming player housing system, showing a warm homestead with a welcoming figure in shade.
WoW flexes its MMO player housing system in a new blog post, and it really might just beat FF14's dated furniture placement into the dirt
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'