We have a soft spot for plucky indie MMOs like Lazarus, and have been tracking its development since its inception. Described in its infancy as a “top-down action-oriented sci fi twist on Groundhog Day,” the game made strides in its development like persistent servers, a stress test and even some updates. After three years of open alpha and in the face of potential financial strain, however, developer Spilt Milk Studios has decided that Lazarus will not make it out of early access and will instead be sunsetted.
The decision came after the company pondered the costs of upkeep and found that it would be too risky to maintain a game like Lazarus.
“Put simply, if we were to launch Lazarus, the cost of maintaining and expanding the game as we marketed it to more players and worked on our monetisation would put a dangerous financial strain on an independent games studio like ours. We love both Lazarus and the community that has grown around it, but we can’t take that risk.”
The servers for Lazarus will remain blinking until Thursday, September 12th. The team will be considering having a farewell livestream and will announce timing for one in their official Discord. The studio itself will still live on post-Lazarus, with a number of other projects in the works.
You can follow along with the development of Lazarus from its early days to these final ones in the list of articles below.
