GhostShark Games is best known for its unique 2019 space-out puzzler Still There (opens in new tab), but the studio's first game was 2015's Blockstorm. The game was essentially a fast Quake-style shooter merged with a Minecraft-inspired sandbox, the latter of which allowed for significant customization of avatars, maps, modes, and weapons.

Blockstorm has garnered near-universal praise from Steam reviewers throughout its existence, with just under 6,500 reviews rating it "very favorable," but recent reviews have been less favorable. The main reason for this is that the game is a multiplayer-only game, and the player base has moved on to other things in the last year or so. So GhostShark and publisher IndieGala had to make a decision: ..... They did the opposite of what a company like .Meta would do (opens in new tab).

Instead of sending Blockstorm to the big voxel graveyard in the sky, the people behind it made the choice to set Blockstorm free. In recent years, Blockstorm has been sold at a discounted price of around $5, with frequent discounts below that, but now you can get this complete kit for as little as a song, just by clicking on Steam's library (opens in a new tab).

"We want to thank our dedicated community of players for their support and feedback over the years." We hope that by making it free-to-play, which is a gift to all of our loyal fans and involved community, even more players will join the Blockstorm community and enjoy the game," GhostShark said in a statement.

Well, it's better than gnashing our teeth. Whether this is enough to breathe new life into Blockstorm remains to be seen, but there are enough popular elements here that it's easy to imagine that this game, which GhostShark calls a "passion project," will be a much bigger success than it is now: and perhaps the magic price tag of zero will attract enough players to keep it alive for some time to come.

Lord knows that when studios shut down old titles, everyone grumbles that there are no longer enough players to keep them afloat: so their willingness to keep Blockstorm alive rather than just quietly remove it from sale is commendable.