Amazon just quietly killed its newest game, ‘Crucible’

• On May 20, Amazon released “Crucible,” a major online multiplayer video game intended to compete with players like “Fortnite.” Amazon had been working on the game since at least 2014.
• “Crucible” was Amazon’s latest attempt to break into the lucrative video game industry.
• A week after launch, with fewer than 5,000 players on average, the game fell off the charts. A month later, Amazon removed the game from availability and put it back in “closed beta,” a term used in game development to indicate that a game is not complete.
• Now “Crucible” is being killed. “Ultimately, we did not see a healthy and sustainable future ahead,” read a blog post for the game published on Friday, adding: “We are going to discontinue development of ‘Crucible.’
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Did you know that Amazon, the world’s largest company, released a big-budget video game this year?

The game is called “Crucible” and you might be forgiven if it’s the first time you’ve heard of it. Despite being a free game and available on the world’s largest gaming platform, Steam, “Crucible” quickly appeared and disappeared from the top 100 list.

A week after its launch in late May, the online multiplayer game had fewer than 5,000 players on average, a major problem given that it was meant to compete with players like “Fortnite” and “Valorant.”

In late June, Amazon pulled the game from digital stores and put it back in “closed beta,” a game development term that means a game is not complete. And in a blog post posted Friday night, he killed “Crucible.”

“Ultimately, we did not see a healthy and sustainable future ahead,” the publication said, adding: “That assessment led us to a difficult decision: we will discontinue development of ‘Crucible’.”

All purchases players have made in-game can be refunded, and the ability to purchase in-game currency has already been suspended. The game’s matchmaking functionality, which enables multiplayer, will be disabled “in the coming weeks,” with an end date for custom games of November 9, according to the post.

“Crucible” is a team-based online multiplayer shooter game that is inspired by online multiplayer battlefield games like “League of Legends” and “DOTA 2” rather than competitive shooter games like “Fortnite”.

It’s also a free game with a PC focus, putting it in direct competition with games like “Valorant” and “Fortnite.” Amazon’s goal for “Crucible,” which it had been working on since at least 2014, was to attract tens of millions of players and hopefully turn it into a major esports game.

The contrast between how “Crucible” was released and how “Valorant” was released helps illustrate why the former failed while the latter succeeded.

When “Valorant” launched this year, it was available in a closed beta that you could only access by watching Twitch streamers play live; Through a “drop” system linked to Twitch accounts, viewers would get free access to the beta. In this way, new players of “Valorant” already had an idea of ​​how to play the game, because they had seen someone play it live.

In the weeks leading up to and following the launch of “Crucible,” Amazon, which owns Twitch, did not use its own streaming service to promote the game. There were no major streamers playing the game and promoting it, no trailers to run as advertisements, and no drop system for early access. Similarly, on YouTube, the “Crucible” ads were nowhere to be seen.

“Crucible” had about 25,000 concurrent players at its peak on May 21. By May 22, two days after launch, it had already disappeared from Steam’s list of the 100 most played games, which reaches about 5,000 simultaneous players.

Do you have a tip? Contact Business Insider Senior Correspondent Ben Gilbert by email ([email protected]) or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep the sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to communicate. Email-only public relations presentations, please.