Launching three months ago, Disintegration was initially seen as an exciting prospect, with the studio behind the game, V1 Interactive, being founded by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto. However, upon release, the game didn't manage to make much of an impact, with critics claiming its unique mix of real-time strategy and free-flowing FPS gameplay was interesting but ultimately too shallow.
Sadly, it seems Disintegration won't get time to build on these criticisms and start anew, with V1 announcing today that the game's multiplayer support will be terminated at the end of November. Releasing back in July, the news comes only three months after the game's release, making for a very disappointing conclusion to an admittedly exciting prospect.
As for why the unfortunate decision was made, Private Division and V1 Interactive claim in a statement: "the game unfortunately struggled to build a significant audience necessary for a compelling multiplayer experience." It seems the decision wasn't one made lightly, with the studio claiming it decided upon such a drastic conclusion after a long time weighing up its options.
According to the statement, the support will be removed "in phases over the coming months, starting today with the removal of the in-game store, and will conclude on November 17th with the full removal of multiplayer." The campaign will be kept intact though, so those who have purchased the game don't have to worry about not having any Disintegration content to play in the coming months.
It seems as though the ill-fated release of Disintegration has been a significant learning curve for V1 Interactive, who finalize their statement by claiming "We believe the video game industry needs constant innovation, and we will continue to take risks, follow creative visions, and support new ideas." Hopefully, the team will be back bigger and better in the next few years with something that manages to cultivate a wider audience. Disintegration was an interesting idea after all, and it's clear the talent over at V1 definitely has an aptitude for thinking of interesting new shake-ups to the FPS multiplayer scene.
For those who didn't see much about Disintegration upon release, the game saw players take to the sky on a hoverbike, mixing gameplay between intense first-person shooting and semi-RTS focused strategy. The user has to fight other airborne enemies while commanding a series of troops around the battlefield, making for a very different and interesting style. It's unfortunate that it didn't manage to catch on in the long-run, especially as more time might've made it into something exceptionally special.
Disintegration is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.