Mavericks is toast, I’m sorry to report this morning. GIbiz caught a notice posted on the website of the game’s company, UK-based Automaton Games, informing readers that a pair of administrators aka “insolvency practitioners” are managing the affairs of the company as it’s wound down, and that includes the game we followed.
“Please be advised that due to insufficient funding, the development of the Mavericks: Proving Grounds game has now ceased. The joint administrators are in the process of licensing the Deceit game so there will be no change in the live operation and provision of this game.”
So what the heck was Mavericks? It was essentially a hybrid between MMOs and the battle royale craze, putting 1000 players on a hyper-realistic battlefield, though our writers who demoed it at events found it was more battle royale than MMO. It was also being built with SpatialOS, making this yet another SpatialOS title giving up in 2019 (Worlds Adrift sunsetted last Friday).
It’s hard to say how sudden this all was; the game was running alpha tests just last week and talking up its E3 feedback, and Automaton was hiring in May, though it also appears it had ceased the sale of founder packs as recently as July 20th. Our condolences to the developers and customers affected by the end of the game.
MMO battle royale title Mavericks previews its plans for early 2019
E3 2018: Hands-on with Mavericks, the MMO battle royale hybrid
E3 2018: Mavericks is battle royale on a massively multiplayer scale
GDC 2018: Making sense of battle royale MMO Mavericks with Automaton Games
Mavericks takes battle royale in the direction of an MMO
