Spectre Divide and its builders, Mountaintop Studios, introduced will probably 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 precipitated 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 top of the week.
Mitchell mentioned: “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, further funding, and/or an acquisition. In the long run, we weren’t capable of 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, up to now 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 foremost competitor, Counter-Strike 2, which commonly sees 1.3-1.8 million gamers up to now three months. In a style dominated by giants, new FPS titles that aren’t already a longtime IP are discovering problem breaking by way of.
How Spectre Divide Fell to CS2 Esports
Shroud introduced he was engaged on Spectre Divide on August 1st, 2024. It provided what he referred to as a ‘contemporary distinctive model’ in a style the place ‘tactical shooters are all mentioned and performed.’
It was a 3v3 tactical first-person shooter, and featured the assault and defence bomb website format seen in VALORANT and Counter-Strike. The primary spotlight was the ‘Duality’ mechanic, the place gamers may alternate between two completely different characters concurrently.
There are a number of potential causes for why the sport failed to succeed in the heights it aspired to. In his assertion, Mitchell mentioned that ‘the business is in a tricky spot proper now’ as extra shooters are each releasing and shutting down.
On X, British YouTuber, Tomographic, mentioned: “The group made an important sport 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 ft, however sending love and properly needs to the unbelievable 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 mentioned: “I don’t [want] to be that man, however this sport stood no probability as a result of its sole gimmick was probably the most laughably idiotic concept possible.
“You may management two our bodies and swap between them. That was the distinctive promoting level of Spectre Divide. How this unhealthy of an concept obtained funding is past me.”
However, Counter-Strike has an extremely easy sport premise that just about any participant can decide up on after a few matches. Its simplicity has allowed it to proceed standing as one of the crucial common esports video games in 2025.
Esports caster and analyst Ne0kai mocked the failure of Spectre Divide, which initially claimed that it might turn into the subsequent massive esport — perhaps even taking on CS2’s spot. Many identified that Shroud by no means performed his personal sport on stream and even made an esports group for a very completely different sport, 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 a number of small on-line occasions hosted by EGL — with very minimal signups. Content material creators didn’t seem to get behind the aggressive aspect, 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 robust to compete with CS2, a sport that has continued to take care of an enormous esports and aggressive fanbase.
