Amazon’s team-based PVP game, Crucible, was officially launched a month ago. Since then, the reception of the game has been quite bad, from both fans and critics. The player base of the game on Steam has also been drastically reduced. As of writing this article, there are only 58 players online, with the highest player peak at 10,600 during launch. The developers even disabled all game modes except one to make queuing easier.
In the hopes to make the game successful, Crucible's developers have taken some unusual steps. Crucible is going back into a closed beta state. You will still be able to play the game, no new downloads are required, and your progress will carry over. However, it's only for those that have already downloaded the game. If you never played Crucible and want to try it out then you will have sign-up for the beta via the game’s official site.
“For the most part, your experience as a Crucible player will stay pretty much the same while we’re in beta. One of the biggest changes you’ll see is that we’re going to schedule dedicated time each week when we as devs will be playing with the community and soliciting feedback. The game will be accessible 24/7 so you can continue to self-organize matches with other players—we recommend joining our Discord server to find players to queue against.” the developers at Amazon Game Studios and Relentless Studios said in a blog post. “You’ll still launch Crucible through Steam (you don’t even need a new download), you’ll keep all the progress and customization items you’ve already earned, and the battle pass, reward tracks, and in-game store will continue to be supported.”
It’s no surprise that Crucible wasn’t successful. The game is missing some very important features. There is no in-game text and voice chat support, the ping system is terrible, and optimization of the game isn’t that great. Simply put, Crucible requires more time in the oven. We will see whether the devs' decision to un-release the game will bear any fruit or not.
So what do you think? Have you played Crucible yet? Do you think un-releasing the game was a wise move? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
