Dauntless, the monster hunting game we had before Monster Hunter came to PC, will shut down in May
Five years after its exciting debut, Dauntless – the popular monster-hunting game – is winding down. The developers, Phoenix Labs, have announced on Steam that they won’t be releasing any more updates or new content. Come the end of May, the game will no longer be playable.
“Dauntless is shutting down on May 29, 2025,” the studio wrote. “Dauntless will receive no additional content or updates. The game will no longer be available to play on May 29, 2025.”
World by Capcom. While name recognition played a part, Monster Hunter: World was just a better game, causing Dauntless to fade into the background.
Trouble started becoming apparent for Phoenix Labs last year, as they announced in May 2024 that they were letting go of employees and canceling ongoing projects as a desperate measure to keep the studio afloat. Matters took a turn for the worse in December when Dauntless was no longer exclusive to the Epic Games Store and moved to Steam. Contrary to expectations, the Steam release resulted in a disaster: Player progress was reset, and a disliked monetization strategy was introduced, resulting in an influx of negative user feedback.
Approximately one month after the Steam release in January, Phoenix Labs made significant job cuts, affecting most of their team. They stated they would provide further information about the impact on Dauntless and Fae Farm, their game resembling Stardew Valley, in the near future. This announcement clarifies Dauntless’s situation, but for now, there’s no news on whether Fae Farm will face a similar destiny.
On certain Reddit threads dedicated to the Dauntless game, users speculated that the game’s decline could be attributed to Phoenix Labs being bought by a crypto company named Forte in 2023. This acquisition was mostly overlooked until a 2024 Game Developer report revealed it. Although it’s hard to quantify the exact influence of this buyout, it’s indisputable that Dauntless struggled significantly with Monster Hunter’s debut on PC. With Monster Hunter: Wilds launching soon and promising much, the situation was only set to worsen, making a genuine comeback for Dauntless increasingly impossible.
I’ve contacted Phoenix Labs for information on Fae Farm’s upcoming developments, and I’ll share any updates as soon as I hear back from them.
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2025-02-25 01:17