Quantic Dream Abandons Spellcasters Chronicles Three Months After Launch
Live-service games are being shut down left and right, and the latest victim is the studio behind Detroit: Become Human‘s recent title. According to a recent post on X, Quantic Dream abandons Spellcasters Chronicles, the free-to-play multiplayer fantasy MOBA that launched this year on Steam.
The post was from Quantic Dream’s official account that gave an update on Spellcasters Chronicles, which reads, “Quantic Dream is announcing the discontinuation of the development of Spellcasters Chronicles.”
Update on the Development of Spellcasters Chronicles pic.twitter.com/v3R7rCEjay
— Quantic Dream (@Quantic_Dream) May 20, 2026
“With this project, our teams set out to explore new creative territories and create a bold, original multiplayer experience. Spellcasters Chronicles allowed us to experiment with new concepts and bring to life an ambitious game shaped by the talent, creativity, and dedication of everyone involved.”
The post continues, saying that “today’s particularly challenging market environment” is the reason the “game has not reached the audience needed to ensure its long-term sustainability.”
“We have therefore made the difficult decision to refocus our efforts on our other projects.”
The game was released on February 26 this year and has a Mixed rating on Steam. According to SteamDB, the game peaked with 888 concurrent players at launch, but had a 24-hour of just 41 players.
Unfortunately, it looks like the news will also result in layoffs, as the studio says they will “undertake an internal reorganization.” However, they promise their “handling this transition with fairness, care, and respect, and will prioritize internal reassignments wherever possible to support our other projects.”
According to the post, the game will be available until June 19, 2026, and then the servers will shut down. Players will be able to request a full refund as well.
Quantic Dream also reassured that “Star Wars Eclipse is not affected by this decision and continues as planned.”
After the news was shared, a French union is blaming management for the failure, including director David Cage. In a recent blog post by Le Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo, it reads, “This project, started 8 years ago and led by Guillaume de Fondaumière, David Cage and Grégorie Diaconu, was supposed to be a ‘reasonably-sized’ project and was planned for a much earlier release.”
“Over all these years, nobody questioned the business model or how the game was to become profitable. Catastrophic project management resulted in iteration after iteration, exhausting the team and leading production straight to disaster.”
The post continues, saying that workers tried to voice their concern over the project’s risk. However, “management arrogantly explained that success was given for Spellcasters Chronicles, thanks to ’30 years of experience’ of decision-makers.”
“Failure was never an option, never thought about, never planned for: incompetence led us here today. Workers pay for management’s misguided ways.”
Quantic Dream is now focusing on Star Wars Eclipse, which does not have a confirmed release date yet, as well as other projects, according to the post.
