The promising looking Darwin Project, which was one of the more eye-catching games featured in last year’s Xbox E3 press conference, has gone free to play just a couple of months after launching into Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview. The change has already taken effect on Steam, and it will be pushed out on Xbox One next week.
Scavenger Studio don’t make mince their words in saying that it’s because their small scale Battle Royale game has been struggling to fill its servers with players as the community has gradually shrunk since the game first went on sale. You barely have to read between the lines to find the free to play Fortnite Battle Royale as the main reason for this.
We’ve been fortunate to have a core community of players join us at a very early stage, with many still supporting us during Early Access, and the last thing we want to do is let those passionate players down. Lately, members of our community have reported longer queue times and difficulty finding matches in lesser populated servers. To bring in new players and maintain a level of activity that ensures players are able to get the most of out Darwin Project, we’ve decided to make it more accessible by removing the price tag.
We’re aware that it’s a big change, and we want to reiterate that we’re remaining true to Darwin Project’s vision as we move forward.
For those that bought the game, Scavenger are looking to make things right with a Founder’s Pack of content. This includes two Montreal legendary sets of armour, 3 legendary axes, 3 legendary bows, a full jumpsuit collection, and 5 fan gifts. These will all be added to your inventory on Tuesday 24th April. Of course, if you’d prefer to simply get a refund, these will be available on Steam next week, regardless of purchase date, so long as you meet Steam’s refund policy.
Darwin Project is a really interesting take on the Battle Royale genre, with just ten players entering the arena and with more survival game elements in play. There’s also an eleventh player who controls the arena, can set bombs close zones, trigger gravity storms, and more.
Here’s hoping the shift to free to play works out well, because the duo of Fortnite and PUBG are bound to squeeze the market for a lot of other promising takes on the genre.
Source: Scavenger Studio
