Armature Studio has announced on its official website that it will be shutting down its multiplayer spaceship combat game "Dead Star" on November 1. The Austin-based company will also pull the PC and PS4 game's listing from the PlayStation and Steam stores.
Kotaku has received an e-mail message from Jack Mathews, Armature director of operations, that the reason for the shutdown is because the operating costs now exceed its income. He said that he was extremely grateful for the support of the community that at some point the game has reached about a year.
Since the "Dead Star" was launched on both PS4 and PC in April, it has taken a strange journey. It was one of the two games that were launched by the same company this year- the other being "ReCore". The game was an unexpected offering made by the lead creators of "Metroid Prime" games.
It should be noted that the studio has attempted to offer the game last December on PS4 even if the platform does not offer such program. However, a fully playable build could be accessed if it was already pre-ordered. The company then launched the "Dead Star" in April and Sony offered it for free to all PSP subscribers on that same month. Unfortunately, such strategy did not generate a lasting player base despite of whatever surge in free downloads.
During the launching period in April and in the weeks that followed, matches were easy to find. Yet the population of the server is anemic now. Besides, some gamer websites tried to find a match within half an hour the day when the news broke of the planned shutdown but could not find a match.
The date of shutdown is just seven months after the game was launched. According to Gamasutra, it is a grim reminder for game developers of the risk of creating a game which is dependent on online features.