2016's Let it Die was a F2P brawler developed by Grasshopper Manufacture, with a PC version (opens in new tab) released in 2018. The title was published by GungHo, and a sequel, developed by Grasshopper spin-off Supertrick Games, was announced in October 2021.Deathverse: Let it Die was in beta last summer before its October release was conducted, but was immediately plagued by two problems: no one was playing it, and if they were playing it, they were having connection issues.

The game currently has 10 players. Today's peak player count is 33; Deathverse's all-time peak was 1,380 at launch (open in new tab). These are far from sustainable numbers for a F2P live service game, and now, just three months after release, a new blog post announces a "hiatus" (opens in new tab) for Deathverse this summer.

"There is no doubt that we have experienced some difficulties since the game's launch, especially with regards to in-game matchmaking and lag. We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this has caused our players."

"We have tried various solutions with some success, but have been unable to resolve the underlying issues. As a result, the development and operations teams have made the decision to temporarily suspend service of the game while we redevelop Deathverse: Let It Die".

In other words, this is a pause, not a run; according to Supertrick, the goal is to "re-release the game with significant improvements" so that more people can enjoy it. He is also a bit philosophical about why he is doing this:

"Given how long it takes to develop a game and the limited number of games we can make in our lifetime, we can't say at this stage if this is the right choice. However, we love the game and are proud of the fact that we were able to develop it as a team. Therefore, we believe this is the best decision possible at this time."

I have not played Deathverse, but the reviews on Steam may offer a glimmer of hope. If anything, players are complaining about not being able to play the game with others and connectivity issues, but when they can play, they seem to enjoy the experience.

The Deathverse outage will occur on July 18, 2023 at 7 p.m. PDT, and sales of the game's premium currency will cease on February 7. Season 2 will be released on schedule with content already in place, while Season 3 will only be "partially released."

Well, maybe in a few years we will be here again discussing the successful relaunch of Deathverse, or maybe we will never hear about it again. There is something very poignant about how quickly things change in live services: a game needs to attract enough players to sustain it, and when that doesn't happen, it can take such a brutally quick tumble. That said, a live service game with problems with online functionality is not a combination that would give Bungie sleepless nights.