Report: Sniper Elite battle royale spinoff cancelled after Tencent pulls funding

Image via Rebellion Developments.

Rebellion Developments has reportedly scrapped a battle royale spinoff for its Sniper Elite series.

Per Insider Gaming, the spinoff, codenamed ‘Project Archipelago,’ was axed after Tencent chose to halt funding. The project was first announced in August amid alpha playtests and would have been the first proper multiplayer entry in the franchise.

According to Insider Gaming, Rebellion leaders indicated the project was scrapped in response to the disastrous launch of Concord, which caused Tencent to think twice about proceeding with Archipelago.

The outlet said developers working on the title have been moved to other projects and noted the cancellation didn’t result in layoffs.

Rebellion declined to comment on the matter when approached by Game Developer.

During a March earnings call, Tencent CSO James Mitchell said the company intended to “focus on fewer bigger budget games.” Live-service titles can be a costly endeavor and don’t always succeed, with Tencent itself pulling the plug on its year-old multiplayer shooter Synced earlier this year.

In the past year, other companies have ended their live-service games that had been around for at least a year, or were actively in mid-development. The reasons vary: Behaviour Interactive’s Project T was killed because development wasn’t coming together, while Synced ended because its player base seemingly wasn’t there. Conversely, Naughty Dog’s multiplayer Last of Us game ended when the studio realized it would be too great of an undertaking.

About the Author

Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com

A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don’t ask him about how much gum he’s had, because the answer will be more than he’s willing to admit.