Remedy Entertainment’s failed multiplayer shooter FBC Firebreak has finally reached the inevitable point we all expected once Remedy admitted it did not perform well on the sales charts despite reaching 1M players. The studio known mostly for its excellent single-player experiences has confirmed that FBC Firebreak will no longer receive new content updates, and its final content update titled Open House is now live for those remaining players to dig into.
The news was revealed with a blog post on the game’s Steam page, where Remedy revealed that the update includes “new arenas inspired by locations from Control for the Endless Shift game mode, gameplay improvements, balance updates, Twitch drops armor sets, and lastly, the new Friend’s Pass.”
Not mentioned in that first list of highlights is the fact that Remedy is also permanently lowering the price of FBC Firebreak. Instead of its initial $39.99 USD price tag, Remedy has cut it in half for the foreseeable future and will now charge only $19.99 for the standard edition. The deluxe edition is down from its original $49.99 price to $29.99. It’s also currently on sale on Steam for an additional 20% off.
You might be wondering why the price change for a game that won’t get any more content, since the next step is usually for these multiplayer games to disappear from existence. Well, that’s the other layer to this announcement: FBC Firebreak will not be going offline anytime soon, according to Remedy.
“FBC Firebreak will stay online and continue to be playable for years to come,” the studio wrote. “We have done engineering work to ensure we can sustain the upkeep of the relay servers when the player volume is lower.” Which is also where the new Friend’s Pass comes into play. If you’re someone who bought the game and was unable to convince your friends to do the same, now you’ll be able to invite them to play with you without also making them fork over any cash. You’ll still have to convince them to spend time playing FBC Firebreak, though.
“FBC Firebreak was built by a team fueled by passion and experimentation,” said game director Mike Kayatta. “That spirit shaped the game, but the moments that brought it to life were the ones that players created together. We want to make sure those moments can continue for the players who are already here, and for anyone else looking for a high-energy, low-pressure game night with friends. That’s why the relay servers are staying up, the price is going down, and a Friend’s Pass is going in. From all of us on the team, thank you for your own passion and experimentation, and we’ll see you in there.”
Remedy will continue to patch the game to ensure it is maintained and runs well, but that’s about it for the future until it goes offline. Though it’ll remain online for the future, Firebreak’s story altogether remains an unfortunate one. Remedy is known for making excellent single-player games that never get the sales recognition they deserve in the eyes of its fans, so it’s easy to see why the studio wanted to at least try its hand at making a bigger commercial success with a multiplayer game.
It had the best of intentions, but those don’t always lead to the reality they have in mind. Even as Firebreak reached 1M players, the studio admitted it had made a few major errors that ended up being pretty fatal, particularly with how the game’s opening hours were structured. It’s financial drop off also resulted in the company’s chief executive officer of the last nine years stepping down.
For all of that said, when Wccftech’s Francesco De Meo reviewed FBC Firebreak at launch, he recognized that there was a solid foundation that could’ve been built on, if Remedy could pace out a solid roadmap.
“FBC: Firebreak makes excellent use of the Oldest House from Control and the Remedy Connected Universe’s signature weirdness to deliver a co-op experience full of personality, but that’s not quite enough to make it one of the best in the genre. While the game shines during its first dozen hours, thanks to the Crisis Kits’ unique abilities and solid mission and map design, the combination of a grindy upgrade system and limited content quickly leads to repetition and fatigue. With its promising content roadmap, however, FBC: Firebreak could evolve into a co-op shooter worth the time and money even for those beyond Remedy’s most devoted fans, as the foundation is undoubtedly solid.”