Popular Battle Royale Shut Down As Blizzard Buys Studio

There was a time when the word acquisition was a weekly headline fixture, becoming the gaming industry’s most fashionable power move. Most notably, Activision Blizzard was snapped by Microsoft whilst Bungie joined Sony’s roster as PlayStation sought to expand their first-party multiplayer line up.

It’s not just the gaming industry that’s witnessing these kinds of multi-billion dollar deals though. I’m sure you’ve heard about Elon Musk’s imminent buyout of Twitter. After a brief acquisition hiatus, we’re back. Blizzard have officially acquired Spellbreak developer Proletariat - and they’ve already announced that the popular battle royale’s days are numbered.

Have you ever wondered how Elden Ring's bosses would fare in a battle royale? Take a look below to find out more.

According to Venturebeat, Blizzard have acquired Proletariat to transfer its 100-person staff onto Blizzard’s World of Warcraft team, specifically working on the upcoming Dragonflight expansion. As such, Proletariat have announced that battle royale Spellbreak will officially shut down in 2023.

Announcing the news, Proletariat said, “Breakers, after more than four years of elemental magic and spell combinations, we’ve made the decision to end development of Spellbreak. The servers will be shut down as of early 2023. Thank you to the millions of players who have joined us in the Hollow Lands since 2018. It’s been an amazing journey.”

“Our vision was to create a fresh, multiplayer action-spellcasting game with exceptional movement and class customization that would give players the chance to unleash their inner battlemage. We are grateful to everyone in the game’s community for exploring the magical worlds and experiences we created together,” they added.

“Spellbreak was an ambitious project that saw our team push new boundaries in design and development and we are excited to continue to innovate as we create new titles in the future.”

Spellbreak’s player base has certainly lessened since the game was officially released back in 2020 but there’s no denying that this is sore news for Spellbreak’s remaining pool of fans.