Wizard royale Spellbreak is shutting down next year

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Despite trying to defy genre norms, it failed to stand out in a sea of big names.

Spellbreak
(Image credit: Proletariat)

Spellbreak, the fantasy battle royale from Proletariat, has announced it'll be shutting down in early 2023.

The game attempted to offer a twist on the traditional battle royale, swapping guns for gauntlets that put the power of the various elements at your fingertips. It had a favourable launch on the Epic Games Store, garnering a tidy five million players in its first three weeks. Chris Livingston spent a fair bit of time with the game back then, finding a lot of fun in its fast-paced movement and combat.

Unfortunately, Spellbreak failed to maintain its early momentum. Though it eventually climbed to 10 million players across all platforms, player count and support dwindled. A Steam launch ended its Epic exclusivity in December 2020 but didn't provide much of a boost. The game's gone without an update since September 2021, and now Proletariat has said the game will cast its final spell sometime in early 2023.

"Unfortunately, the game industry is a difficult business," CEO Seth Sivak wrote in a Reddit post. "Spellbreak was not able to break through and reach a sustainable place where we could continue to invest in it the way we had dreamed of. We picked a hard path as an independent studio and decided to compete with some of the biggest games in the world. While we could not get the escape velocity needed, I do not regret the bold decisions we made in bringing Spellbreak to life.

"While this is goodbye for Spellbreak, I cannot thank this community enough for the support and help along the way. Spellbreak transformed our studio and touched the lives of so many. So again, thank you."

There's no exact end date for Spellbreak yet. Any currency already obtained or bought can still be spent in the shop, but real-money purchases have now been disabled. 

Mollie Taylor
Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.