For EA, Dawngate was originally billed as the publisher’s bold and cartoony venture into the highly competitive MOBA genre when it debuted in beta form close to 18 months ago. Indeed Waystone Games’ title was very much infused with the DNA of the industry’s big hitters — including League of Legends and DOTA 2 — and even integrated champions, minions and a set number of lanes into the battle arena.
However, without any tangible progress in the last few months, EA has opted to cancel the long-gestating game.
In a statement provided by BioWare group general manager, Matt Bromberg, it was revealed that what was once an ambitious new path for the publisher soon devolved into a labour of love.
“Today, I have the unenviable task of announcing that we’ve decided to stop development of Dawngate.
“Dawngate has been in beta for almost 18 months… And although the game has grown, we’re not seeing the progress we’d hoped for. This isn’t the outcome we wanted, but beta testing is about learning and improving, and ultimately, about making difficult decisions about how to proceed.
“We chose to enter a new genre for EA in MOBA, one that we knew going in was extremely competitive,” he wrote. “We built a game in Dawngate that wasn’t simply a clone of existing MOBAs, but one that truly pushed the genre forward in many ways.”
Further in the community post, Bromberg confirmed that the PC title will continue to operate for another 90 days, and that any players who participated in the beta will receive full refunds in due time.
That said, it remains to be seen how shelving Dawngate will affect Waystone Games, be it through layoffs or, in the worst case scenario, an out-and-out closure. Here’s hoping the latter scenario doesn’t come to pass.
