We’ve got bad news for fans of Dauntless and Fae Farm tonight: Studio Phoenix Labs posted to Linkedin that its owners have “made the tough decision to part ways with the majority of the studio as part of unfortunate but necessary changes to [its] operations.”
It’s not immediately clear what’s happening to the two remaining games; Phoenix Labs says it will “share more details in the coming weeks about what this means for Dauntless and Fae Farm.”
We’d like to be able to say this is a surprise, but unfortunately, it’s not. Readers will recall that layoffs have been ongoing at Phoenix Labs since 2023 and what the company characterized as an investor buyout that turned out to have been a blockchain company, Forte Labs, trying to keep its involvement a secret. Last October, whistleblowers at Phoenix finally exposed Forte Labs and the fact that it was behind the decision to axe most of PL’s in-development titles – everything but Dauntless and Fae Farm.
Dauntless, however, hasn’t fared well in the months since; in December, its developers finally made good on their promise for a big revamp, but that revamp, Awakening, was deeply unpopular with gamers, devs, and our own Dauntless expert.
“The Awakening update is every bit as awful as veteran players categorize,” MOP’s Chris lamented. “Dauntless now barely registers as a husk of its former self, drained by what can only be assumed is a desperate final cash-out attempt before the whole house of cards finally tumbles over.”
Players were anticipating the launch of the Umbral Reign season last week, but it was abruptly delayed for unspecified reasons that have now become very clear: Can’t update the game if almost all of the devs are gone.
