Spectre Divide and its builders, Mountaintop Studios, introduced it is going to be shutting down regardless of elevating $30 million in funding final 12 months.
Following dwindling numbers and lack of ‘funding to assist the sport,’ the neighborhood is left questioning what brought about the downfall of Michael ‘Shroud‘ Grzesiek’s ‘Counter-Strike killer.’
Mountaintop CEO, Nate Mitchell, launched an announcement on-line, sharing that the tactical shooter could be shut down within the subsequent 30 days — and Mountaintop Studios could be shuttered by the tip of the week.
Mitchell stated: “As time has gone on, we haven’t seen sufficient lively gamers and incoming income to cowl the day-to-day prices of Spectre and the studio.
“We pursued each avenue to maintain going, together with discovering a writer, extra funding, and/or an acquisition. In the long run, we weren’t in a position to make it work.”
In accordance with Steam DB charts, the sport reached a peak of over 30,000 concurrent Steam gamers within the final six months. Nonetheless, previously month that peak has ranged from 700 to only over 1000, lower than 5% of what it was again in September 2024.
That is compared to its fundamental competitor, Counter-Strike 2, which frequently sees 1.3-1.8 million gamers previously three months. In a style dominated by giants, new FPS titles that aren’t already a longtime IP are discovering problem breaking via.
How Spectre Divide Fell to CS2 Esports
Shroud introduced he was engaged on Spectre Divide on August 1st, 2024. It supplied what he referred to as a ‘recent distinctive type’ in a style the place ‘tactical shooters are all stated and carried out.’
It was a 3v3 tactical first-person shooter, and featured the assault and defence bomb website format seen in VALORANT and Counter-Strike. The principle spotlight was the ‘Duality’ mechanic, the place gamers might alternate between two totally different characters concurrently.
There are a number of potential causes for why the sport failed to achieve the heights it aspired to. In his assertion, Mitchell stated that ‘the trade is in a troublesome spot proper now’ as extra shooters are each releasing and shutting down.
On X, British YouTuber, Tomographic, stated: “The workforce made an excellent recreation and injected one thing new into the style for the primary time in a very long time. It’s a disgrace Spectre Divide couldn’t discover its toes, however sending love and effectively needs to the unimaginable expertise this studio possesses.”
Others say that the sport was doomed to fail from the beginning, with a mechanic that merely didn’t resonate with informal and esports gamers.
YouTuber Mischief stated: “I don’t [want] to be that man, however this recreation stood no likelihood as a result of its sole gimmick was essentially the most laughably idiotic concept possible.
“You’ll be able to management two our bodies and swap between them. That was the distinctive promoting level of Spectre Divide. How this unhealthy of an concept acquired funding is past me.”
Then again, Counter-Strike has an extremely easy recreation premise that nearly any participant can choose up on after a few matches. Its simplicity has allowed it to proceed standing as probably the most widespread esports video games in 2025.
Esports caster and analyst Ne0kai mocked the failure of Spectre Divide, which initially claimed that it could change into the following huge esport — possibly even taking up CS2’s spot. Many identified that Shroud by no means performed his personal recreation on stream and even made an esports workforce for a very totally different recreation, clearly not assured in Spectre Divide’s success within the aggressive scene.
A fast search on-line exhibits no tournaments for the sport except for just a few small on-line occasions hosted by EGL — with very minimal signups. Content material creators didn’t seem to get behind the aggressive facet, which is a part of the difficulty. Whereas some followers have been hopeful in its first month that the sport would have in-person occasions, that by no means got here to be.
The sport was loved by some players within the FPS scene, however it was powerful to compete with CS2, a recreation that has continued to take care of an enormous esports and aggressive fanbase.
