Publisher Improbable Worlds Limited announces that its survival battle royale Scavengers will be shutting down its servers later this year. The battle royale market, and the broader live service shooter genre overall, is particularly saturated. Original developer Midwinter Entertainment believed that Scavengers offered something unique and new, but it's difficult even for great games to gain an audience next to more successful battle royales. Scavengers is set to become just the latest title to sunset without reaching its full potential.
Scavengers officially launched in early access on May 1, 2021, via Steam. Midwinter had ambitious plans for the game, like adding and expanding progression systems and eventually bringing the PC-exclusive early access release to consoles. A year of support followed, with Midwinter dropping routine hotfixes, updates, and improvements to Scavengers. In May earlier this year, Improbable sold Midwinter, and communication channels from Improbable Worlds went silent as the company refocused on the "metaverse." It was at that point that Scavengers fans feared the worst.
Improbable Worlds confirmed Friday that Scavengers would be ending its service on December 16, 2022. The letter from Improbable Worlds shared on the official Scavengers website first apologized for the extended lack of communication from the team. It then stated quite directly that Scavengers would be shut down. The decision to end Scavengers came as Improbable Worlds saw a "decline in the playerbase" over the past few months and realized that the game was no longer sustainable.
While the sincerity of Improbable Worlds' apology for the game being shut down is questionable, it does want to celebrate the game before the servers go offline. With that in mind, it's inviting Scavengers players new and old to "give Scavengers the thrilling sendoff it deserves." The servers will remain fully supported for the next month and, with hope, the announcement of the shutdown will lead to a surge of players if only to acknowledge the effort that went into the game.
Scavengers, unfortunately, has had a rough time even through to its launch. Its peak players in its launch month topped out at 16,712. A month later and that peak became 1,819. Outside of some very sporadic surges, by 2022 Scavengers was wrestling with an average player count of nearly 100. The past several months have seen that number sink to between 30 and 40. It's easy to see why Improbable Worlds wasn't able to see a path forward.
The end for Scavengers has been an inevitability since Midwinter Entertainment's sale earlier in 2022. Those still playing Scavengers can be thankful for this extra time that they've had with the game, and the time yet remaining. Scavengers offers a unique take on live service battle royales and will certainly be missed once it's gone.
Scavengers is available now on PC.