Dauntless, the monster hunting game that made such a splash when it launched five years ago, is coming to an end. Developer Phoenix Labs has announced on Steam that no further updates or new content will be released, and the game will become unplayable at the end of May. «Dauntless is shutting down on May 29, 2025,» the studio wrote. «Dauntless will receive no additional content or updates.
The game will no longer be available to play on May 29, 2025.» That's the entire message, a very bare-bones farewell to a game that came out strong but struggled badly in recent years.
Dauntless was initially presented as «the PC Monster Hunter game we've all been waiting for,» which held up for about six months until Capcom decided to give us the real deal with Monster Hunter: World.
Name recognition was obviously a factor but it was also simply a better game, and Dauntless was quickly overshadowed. The first signs of real trouble came to light last year, as developer Phoenix Labs announced in May 2024 that it was laying off employees and cancelling in-development projects in a "last-ditch resort" to ensure the studio could survive.
But things went from bad to much worse in December when Dauntless finally shed its Epic Games Store exclusivity and made the move to Steam.