Supervive Game end of service 8 months after 1.0 release

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Supervive was a Battle Royale MOBA that released in early access last year by a new indie studio called Theorycraft Games, and after barely a year of service, the game is being shut down in Februrary, announced here on twitter: https://x.com/playSUPERVIVE/status/2001111585972953496?s=20

Technically the game’s only been out for half a year, their 1.0 was back in July of this year.

I think its pretty tragic. The game was pretty enjoyable IMO, and they did a lot to make the MOBA experience a lot more approachable. I’m used to seeing MOBAs come and go, so its no real surprise, but I kind of figured Supervive would kind of figure it out and pull it off anyways.

But pull it off they didn’t, which honestly really shocked me because last I knew they had plenty of people playing. But it turns out the drop off was really sharp, as you can see in the steam charts data.

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The studio was founded by a bunch of industry vets actually. I knew they had Ex-riot talent there, but i didnt realize they also had people from blizzard and bungie. at the very least, it sounds like the studio isnt shutting down. So i’ll definitely keep an eye out for whats next from them.

MOBAS are basically dominated by Dota and League of legends. Any other non-mobile alternative has kind of died out. For whatever reason they all keep trying to make alternatives to the Three-lane format, maybe to avoid competing directly with dota and league. Smite makes it work in 3D, but Paragon famously didnt. Heroes of the Storm didnt work out either, and in my mind is still associated with that turning point for Blizzard’s downfall. Even something like Omega strikers took the general MOBA format and applied it to a sports title.

my immediate first reaction to this news was, well duh. what intersection is there in Battle Royale and Mobas? what battle royale fan would want to play a moba? But then literally minutes later my friend sent me this announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMBw9YmOUl4

Eternal Return is another MOBA x Battle Royale, except this ones been around since 2020 and is now collabing with Guilty Gear Strive. so they’re pretty well off. So it couldnt just be because of the genre mixup, or moba disinterest, or battle royale fatigue. Theres gotta be more at play here. but i didnt play long enough to see any of those issues. makes me think though.

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Would like to note that the GGST x Eternal Return announcement and the Supervive End of Service announcement were posted to twitter literally within an hour of each other. and as someone that played both games that feels kind of hilarious to me.

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I think like most things in life, I think a game taking off is preparation and luck. Right place and right time and can make all the difference. Multiplayer games have the added burden of more stars needing to align for success; there needs to be a pool of willing players and the server costs have to either be low enough to keep them around or something like dedicated servers available. So they need the luck AND the window of time for that luck to come is even smaller. It is always the hope that a thing that is good will get the recognition it deserves, but that just doesn’t always happen and when it doesn’t (like maybe in this case) it is sad…

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As you noted, the studio isn’t closing so it’s not a total lost cause. I’m sure they got plenty of good data points to take to the next title. I really wonder if there are smaller studios out there that can find that magic window consistently. My thoughts immediately go to Supercell. They seem to have churned out hit after hit (besides Boom Beach) and they’re all multiplayer titles. Of course, they’re exclusively in the mobile space. Then there’s also Super Evil Megacorp who successfully transitioned into console and PC, with a licensed title too. Maybe this is massive cope, but I have hope they can stay afloat.

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