In sad news, development of the massively multiplayer online battle royale game Mavericks: Proving Grounds has been canceled. Development is being halted following the studio behind the game, Automaton Games, running into financial issues. Mavericks was far enough along in development to be running alpha tests, with its most recent test running on July 26. A public beta had been planned for November. It just goes to show just how sudden and surprising Mavericks' cancellation is for everyone involved.
According to a statement issued by Automaton all development for Mavericks at the studio is over. "Insufficient funding" is cited as the reason. It's also confirmed that Automaton itself will be entering administration, the term used for a company reaching insolvency in the United Kingdom. For the foreseeable future, Automaton's previous game, Deceit, will continue to be supported due to licensing agreements.
Joint administrators have already been appointed to Automaton Games to lead it through its insolvency.
Joint administrators have already been appointed to Automaton Games to lead it through its insolvency.
In perhaps uplifting news, Mavericks YouTuber RockhoundBlack reports that an anonymous source from within Automaton says that the game may yet have a future. According to the source, one of Mavericks' investors is interested in acquiring the intellectual property associated with the game and releasing a completed game as soon as 2020. The source also says that as much as 2/3 of Mavericks' development team from Automaton could shift over to the development of this new project.
While it's impossible to verify the authenticity of this rumor, it's worth being hopeful that as many of the game's developers as possible can have a smooth transition to new employment
For those unfamiliar, Mavericks was touted as the first truly massively multiplayer battle royale game. It was said to feature the "scale and economy of an MMO, the progression and customization of an RPG," built into a battle royale FPS. Its biggest selling point, however, was the idea of 1,000-person games, with teams of 200-to-400 players teaming up across multiple different "regions." It also planned to feature a supposed 10,000 player social hub that it had named The Capital.
Exactly how much of Mavericks was completed and playable isn't clear, as the pre-alpha of the game was still under NDA. In the months to come, more details about the game's development will hopefully be shared. And news about the game's future under a different development studio will also hopefully be confirmed in time, as well.
Mavericks: Proving Grounds, originally planned for release in 2019 on PC, is no longer in development.