Crucible (video game)

Crucible was a free-to-play multiplayer third-person shooter developed and published by Relentless Studios, a subsidiary of Amazon Game Studios. It is Amazon's first major original title published by their gaming division, which had previously focused on tablet games. It became available for download on May 20, 2020, for Windows, after having been in development since 2014. The game returned to a closed beta status on June 30, 2020. On October 9, 2020, Relentless Studios announced that development would be discontinued within one month.

Gameplay
Crucible was a hero shooter game. Different playable characters, referred to as "hunters", impacted which abilities players had. Matches were team-based player versus player competitions, and the Alpha Hunters, Harvester Command, and Heart of Hives game modes all included player versus environment elements as well. Unlike other hero shooter games, there were no dedicated healer or tank characters, requiring all players to search for healing items during matches.

Release
Because of COVID-19 the entire development team was working remotely at the time of the game's launch. At launch, the game was in "pre-season" to allow developers to finetune the gaming experience.

Reception
Crucible received mixed reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Cancellation
On October 9, 2020, Relentless Studios announced the cancellation of Crucible, citing the inability to see a sustained future as the reason for cancellation. The studio offered full refunds for any purchases made and was subsequently shifted to aid development of Amazon's other upcoming title, New World. Matchmaking would be discontinued in late October, and custom game servers would be shut down on November 9 at noon PST.