The free Marathon demo is losing players daily. Unlike many other games, it failed to bounce back during the weekend and by Monday dipped to 18K (against 143K on its first day). That's 87% loss in less than a week.

The final game is planned to be paid and it doesn't look good for Bungie and Sony.

#Bungie@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV
#PlayStation@GameDEV

Valve secretly revived Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Yes, CS2 is also available separately, but CSGO is much faster on old machines and players are extremely happy to see it.

Despite such a limited news coverage, the game already peaked at 61K CCU. Sadly, all Steam achievements are gone.

#Multiplayer@GameDEV
#Valve@GameDEV

My teammates

#Multiplayer@GameDEV
#meme@GameDEV

Apparently, Jeff quit when Activision Blizzard told him "either the game makes X profits by next quarter or 1000 people will be fired here and it's all because of you". Somehow it was not motivational for anyone.

#Blizzard@GameDEV
#Overwatch@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

I didn't even know it exists, but here we go: another co-op by Saber Interactive!

1. They nailed hordes of zombies (and only Saber can do them that well at these quantities)

2. They done a great job with cars thanks to Mudrunner/Snowrunner experience the company has in their sleeve. Mud and deformable terrain, deformable cars, winch, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EwH5-qqf6U
#Multiplayer@GameDEV
#coop@GameDEV

It seems that the best-selling game of 2025 is also losing players way too fast. In addition to layoffs, EA is launching a free week in Battlefield 6.

EA, let's be real: BF6 is good, 2042 was good after patches (about 2 years since the release), BFV was good about 1.5 years after the release, and I can continue. But this is still basically the same game as 15 years ago. Its current online is the real volume of people willing to play it frequently.

#Battlefield@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV
#EA@GameDEV

Remedy made a tricky move: FBC Firebreak failed miserably but they provided it with the final update and promised to keep the servers up for years to come.

#Remedy@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

A very good take on duality:
- Looks good for active players
- Looks bad for bosses at SONY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6mJfpERH0s
#Bungie@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

Valve put CS2 on fire yet again: you lose ammo during the reload. Let me explain — even in casual milsims you don't, you just have half-empty mags in rotation.

It's generally compensated with more ammo but the community is concerned that the whole meta of the game will change. Some weapons will be completely obsolete and the gameplay can become too "safe", people will not rush-in instantly.

And rating matches are barely working. People are not used to the new system and lose ratings miserably. So only a few exceptionally good players farm there.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/730/view/532126482488623353?l=english
#Valve@GameDEV
#GameDesign@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

Still standing

#Bungie@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

And another great study on why BF6 (and some other shooters) feel wrong: bullets are much faster, they reach greater distances with no drop and it makes maps sizes and weapon classes irrelevant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwpDN0fRvAA
#GameDesign@GameDEV
#Weapons@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV
#Battlefield@GameDEV

Ubisoft is making a move: it's a mobile shooter in The Division universe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhE68uZi1Bw
#MobileGames@GameDEV
#Ubisoft@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

And MADFINGER brought the biggest update Spearhead to their Gray Zone Warfare (they are nice folks and the game is a bit underappreciated IMO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCKnT__J4FM
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

Yeah, duh 🙄 (via)

#Multiplayer@GameDEV
#meme@GameDEV

First they are like: The cube, Save us! The cube then like: nope, ain't gonna save ya!

The game has been released just a few weeks ago in March. And it will be down by May 8 including Discord server. For example, the discord of Highguard is still up and running.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/3810880/announcements/detail/508484486901530657

#Fail@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

Dune Awakening devs are working on Self-Hosted servers and PvE. Soon PvP will become fully optional, less than 20% ever use it and they are less engaged.

Will AAA publishers notice it? Your live-service games are no longer needed, collaboration is the key, exploration and creation are the driving force.

https://duneawakening.com/news/developer-update-april-2026/
#Multiplayer@GameDEV
#Sandbox@GameDEV

Yet another multiplayer fell just a few weeks after the release. This time the company wants to give it back to you, the people:

It's a paid game, costs €12 by the way, peaked at 500 CCU and never got over 100 since.

UPD: The game has been developed by a small studio Night Street Games, founded by Imagine Dragons members, including Dan Reynolds and his brother Mac.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2721340/view/675119576448500506?l=english
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

There's something terribly wrong going on with The Finals:

Embark is banning people even for accessibility controllers and players started to research the issue, but got deeper than expected.

- They apparently removed anticheat for pro players (secretly, then confirmed it by saying it was due to massive reports on their exceptional skill levels)

- They made a special discord for selected pro players where they have tons of privileges

- They ban average users with one request from pro players and without clear investigation

The same company also operates Arc Raiders. Which is far less competitive but still...

#Embark@GameDEV
#Multiplayer@GameDEV

Over the last couple of years I intentionally added all reasonable free to play multiplayer games to my Steam account. Dozens of games to simply look after the industry.

Many of them were just released
Most of them are already closed

Like literally: end of line, support termination, we took a tough decision to take the game offline. Party games, competitive games, and so on. I haven't even played most of them and never will. Often they don't even announce it — the server just goes offline and the game ends up unable to connect.

Were they that bad? Nope, but the whole market is oversaturated and there's barely any place left to conquer. Make solo games, folks, they are timeless.

#Multiplayer@GameDEV