Battlerite official artwork and logo

[Update #2]: V Rising has now landed into Early Access, and so far things are looking quite good!

[Update]: Battlerite developers are working on a new open world vampire game - V Rising.

Battlerite, much like Bloodline Champions that came before it, has simply not managed to find itself a consistent audience. Whether this is due to Stunlock Studios pursuing a Battle Royale experience with Battlerite Royale or the simple nature of highly competitive games burning players out, I have no idea, but the end result is that the developers can unfortunately no longer continue supporting Battlerite.

"We love Battlerite. And we know that you do too. But today we’re announcing that we will be scaling back on development, and things will be changing moving forward," reads the recent update. "With the state of the current playerbase we’re no longer in a position where working on Battlerite and Battlerite Royale are sustainable as main projects for the studio. We’ve seen declining player numbers and player investment for a while now, and diminishing returns on all of our latest gameplay changes and marketing campaigns."

"On our end we’ll keep looking at how to serve the games and what’s possible for them while we move on to the next project. We’ll be taking everything we’ve learned from Battlerite – what worked, what didn’t work, what we could have done better, and more – to the next game and growing from it all. You’ll hear from us again in the future on the future development plans for Battlerite and when our next project is ready."

If there is one glimmer of light in this rather somber announcement, it would be that the Season 3 update will coming as planned this July 10th. Expect to see even more free and premium items than before, the removal of both Armory and Overload from Casual and League matches, while the "All Champions Pack" will have its price lowered by 50% in order to account for the new direction.

Once Stunlock Studios announce their next project I'll make sure to let you know as I'm quite interested myself. Until then, you can read the full developer update, as well as a little bit more about Season 3, over at the official website.