After four years of development, Proletariat has announced that the magical battle royale game Spellbreak will officially be shutting down in early 2023. The game is being sunset, as a new blog post notes, but as for the exact reason, that seems to be tied to the fact that Blizzard has the intent to acquire the developer, as GamesBeat reports.
The actual statement from Proletariat about shutting down Spellbreak states, it "was an ambitious project that saw our team push new boundaries in design and development and we are excited to continue to innovate as we create new titles in the future."
A follow up post on Reddit by Proletariat's CEO Seth Sivak adds further colour to this news.
"Unfortunately, the game industry is a difficult business. Spellbreak was not able to break through and reach a sustainable place where we could continue to invest in it in the way we had dreamed of. We picked a hard path as an independent studio and decided to compete with some of the biggest games in the world. While we could not get the escape velocity needed, I do not regret the bold decisions we made in bringing Spellbreak to life."
The news that the developer is set to be acquired by Blizzard has yet to be formally announced, but as GamesBeat reports, this will be the biggest acquisition that Blizzard has made and is being done so that the studio can continue to meet timing and quality goals for World of Warcraft.