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Six years ago, a bunch of former BioWare, Blizzard, and Riot developers formed Elodie to work on a game that eventually became Seekers of Skyveil, a novel blend of MOBA action and the extraction format made popular by games like Escape From Tarkov. The team at PC Gamer had positive things to say about it, with former editor Tyler Colp saying it “might’ve cracked a new subgenre,” but the game never climbed above a Mixed user rating on Steam since launching earlier this month. Today, only 18 days after it was released into early access, it was announced that the game and the studio behind it will be shutting down.
The news came in a blog post wherein the Elodie team thanked its players for giving it a chance: “Your enthusiasm, feedback, and love for Seekers of Skyveil meant everything to us. We built this game for YOU, and we’re grateful you found us … This isn’t the outcome we hoped for, but it doesn’t take away from what we were able to accomplish together. Thank you for being a part of our adventure.”
In the same post, the team reflects on the game’s struggle to find a sustainably large playerbase: “Without the necessary funding to continue development and marketing efforts, we have no choice but to bring this short journey to an end.”
While Seekers of Skyveil was the first game Elodie released, it wasn’t the first the studio worked on. It had initially secured $32.5 million in investor funding to make a social co-op game, before what the studio calls a “major pivot” saw the project evolve into the game that eventually released.
Those who did give Seekers a shot in its first month will be refunded for any in-game currency or DLC purchases they made, and all server locations will be available for the next 10 days. Until the game shuts down, all heroes will be free to play, and players will get a boatload of in-game currency and the premium version of the battle pass. After the 31st, anyone who owns the game will be able to launch it, but all forms of matchmaking will be inaccessible and it will be unavailable to add to your Steam library.
It always gives me a heavy heart to see these games go, especially so quickly; being purely multiplayer experiences, any sort of long-term preservation is usually out of the question. Despite Seekers of Skyveil’s novel spin on the MOBA formula, it entered a crowded space dominated by titans like League of Legends and Dota 2, and the recent launches of similar hero-based PvP games like Deadlock, Marvel Rivals, and Supervive only split up the pie further. Such rapid closures are upsettingly common these days, with the recent Star Wars: Hunters not even making it to its Steam launch.
If you’re keen to set a course for Skyveil one last time, the game is free to download on Steam.
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Kurt Indovina
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