Amazon pulls the plug on its first AAA game, 'Crucible'

Earlier this year Amazon tried to make a splash with its first AAA title, a free-to-play shooter called Crucible that was originally announced in 2016. The multiplayer game launched in May but quickly returned to beta status as developers cut down the available modes and said they were adding polish.

Today the team published a blog post saying that after evaluating feedback from the closed beta they’ve decided to discontinue development entirely. All in-game purchases will be refunded, and the team is apparently transitioning to other projects in Amazon Games including New World. There will be a final playtest and community celebration event before matchmaking is disabled, and after that players will only have access to custom games until the servers shut down at 3PM ET on November 9th.

Amazon tried to do battle with major games like Call of Duty, Valorant and Overwatch but ultimately came up short. Now we’ll be watching to see what happens with its next projects, and whether those have a similarly brief window to find their footing.