We all know that Activision Blizzard is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft, but that isn't stopping the company from making acquisitions of its own. This week, Blizzard confirmed that it has acquired studio Proletariat, the company behind Spellbreak.
Spellbreak launched back in 2018, offering a new take on the battle royal formula, pitting mages with elemental powers against each other in a free for all battle. Now, Proletariat will be joining Blizzard as part of the World of Warcraft team and its original game will be shutting down for good.
“After more than four years of elemental magic and spell combinations, we’ve made the decision to end development of Spellbreak. The servers will be shut down as of early 2023. Thank you to the millions of players who have joined us in the Hollow Lands since 2018; it’s been an amazing journey”, the studio said in its shutdown announcement.
The exact terms of the buyout were not disclosed, but moving forward, the Spellbreak team will be working on World of Warcraft. This is just the latest effort to beef up Blizzard's development output. Previously, Activision's Vicarious Visions was absorbed by Blizzard to aid in Diablo development. Due to that, Activision lost one of its best remaster/remake studios, leading to the cancellation of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 Remake.
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KitGuru Says: Spellbreak wasn't the biggest battle royale around, but it was fun and had its own charm to it. It is a shame to see another promising game studio shut down just to try and keep Blizzard's ageing IP afloat.