Another live service game bites the dust. Steel Hunters, the mech-based PvPvE shooter from the creators of World of Tanks, will be shutting down this October, barely six months after it first hit early access.
Steel Hunters couldn’t survive the free-to-play fight
The game launched on Steam on April 2 with big ambitions. Some fans saw flashes of Titanfall and hoped for the next sleeper hit. But instead, Steel Hunters struggled to hold players from the start. Despite being free-to-play, it failed to capture attention. A launch peak of 4,479 players quickly dwindled. As of this week, its 24-hour high is just 97 with only 52 people logged in when the news dropped.
Wargaming, the studio behind the project, made the call official in a message to fans.
“Continuing development is not sustainable,” the team wrote. “We know this isn’t the news anyone wanted to hear.”
Servers will stay live until October 8. After that, Steel Hunters will go dark for good.
1.11.0.3 update launched for Hunt Showdown. The latest patch brings a bunch of bug fixes and improvements. Here are the details.
What went wrong with Steel Hunters?
The top Steam review, posted by a player with over 300 hours logged, spelled it out: missed potential. Fans liked the core concept, praised the mech design, and complimented the maps. But updates were slow, communication was poor, and no clear roadmap ever emerged.
One quote stood out:
“Early access should have never happened… Players offered feedback and fixes, but Wargaming just kept moving forward blindly.”
Steel Hunters joins the growing list of live service failures
The shutdown adds to a brutal year for online games. Just last week, Microsoft pulled the plug on an unannounced MMORPG, leading to hundreds of layoffs. Sony’s Concord reportedly cost hundreds of millions before even launching. And now, Steel Hunters is gone before it had a chance to grow.
Here’s what sealed its fate:
- Weak player retention
- Poor communication from devs
- Lack of content updates
- No clear long-term plan
- Early access launched too early
No roadmap, no runway
Steel Hunters never really found its footing. Wargaming launched early, delivered slowly, and didn’t seem ready to pivot when things went south. A great mech design alone wasn’t enough.
Steel Hunters fades out with barely a fight
In a time when live service games demand precision, speed, and community trust, Steel Hunters came in light on all three. The battles may have been mechanical, but the silence around the game’s future was all too human.
