Battle royale Spellbreak shutting down after Blizzard buys studio

polygon.com:

Spellbreak, the fantasy-themed battle royale for consoles and PC, will shut down in early 2023 now that its studio, Proletariat, has been acquired by Blizzard Entertainment to be put to work on World of Warcraft.

Proletariat on Tuesday thanked the Spellbreak community for supporting an “ambitious project that saw our team push new boundaries in design and development,” but said servers for the free-to-play game will shut off early next year. The studio did not give a reason for the shutdown.

Then on Wednesday, VentureBeat reported Blizzard had bought out the studio and would be putting its staff of 100 to work on World of Warcraft, and the Dragonflight expansion announced in April. VentureBeat said it is the largest studio acquisition Blizzard has made in the past decade.

“Our vision was to create a fresh, multiplayer action-spellcasting game with exception movement and class customization that would give players the chance to unleash their inner battlemage,” Proletariat said in Tuesday’s note.

Previously, Proletariat developed and published World Zombination, a strategy title for mobile devices and PC, and Streamline, an arena shooter designed specifically to be livestreamed on Twitch.

Spellbreak first launched in early access for Windows PC in June 2018. Its full launch came Sept. 3, 2020 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is expected to launch by the end of 2022.