The studio elaborated on the shutdown in a blog post on the official Scavengers website. The studio stated that, considering the decline in player numbers while the game was still in early access, trying to keep it running would prove to be unsustainable.

“We have made the difficult decision to shut the game down on December 16, 2022,” says the blog post. “The last few months have seen a decline in the playerbase, and whilst we explored many options to reinvigorate server population while the game is in early access, it became clear that it was unsustainable to continue development and live service.”

The post goes on to thank players for supporting Scavengers, and inviting players to play the game until its final date to give the game an appropriate send off.

Earlier this year, Improbable had reportedly sold the studio developing Scavengers—Midwinter Entertainment—to Behaviour Interactive, known for developing and publishing Dead by Daylight.

As reported by Eurogamer, Midwinter Entertainment has been sold by parent company Improbable to Behaviour Interactive, the developer and publisher of popular horror multiplayer game Dead by Daylight.

While Scavengers’ PC version is currently being kept operational by a small active team, its PS4 and Xbox One versions have been cancelled. Console versions of the survival title had been in closed alpha for several months.

According to Eurogamer’s report, under Behaviour Interactive, Midwinter Entertainment is now working on a new project. There’s no word yet on what the future holds for Scavengers’ PC early access version in terms of new content or updates.

Midwinter Entertainment’s studio head Mary Olson said: “When we first started talking to Behaviour months ago, the alignment across the teams was striking, and in my experience rare. As we continued to explore, it was clear the opportunity goes beyond similar values and development philosophy. We are thrilled to join and learn from a team with proven success across a broad spectrum of IP, while in turn leveraging the strong foundation, culture, and team we’ve built at Midwinter to expand Behaviour’s portfolio. Plus, Midwinter will be able to leverage 30 years of legacy and join forces with one of North America’s fastest-growing gaming studios.”

Behaviour Interactive boss Rémi Racine said: “Behaviour was not just looking for any studio, but the right studio. Chemistry was essential and our similar values, cultures and our commitment to creating games that push boundaries and defy expectations make Midwinter a perfect fit. This is an important move during a milestone year for Behaviour, which will mark its 30th anniversary in September, and further evidence of the impressive growth that has seen our revenues more than double since 2019 and our team reach nearly 1000 full-time employees.”

Improbable boss and co-founder Herman Narula said: “As part of our announced focus on the metaverse Improbable announced the divestment of its non metaverse focused content teams at the start of the year. We are really excited to have found partners who we believe can provide a fantastic home for the Midwinter team. We are very pleased to see Midwinter go with Behaviour, both for the common ambition they have, and for the cultural fit we have observed all along our discussions. The work done by the Midwinter team over the past three years has been phenomenal and we wish this team all the very best and will be looking forward to seeing their upcoming projects come to life.”

Mindwinter Entertainment is comprised of several ex-Halo developers, and Scavengers does carry the charm of the developers’ previous projects in subtle ways. Players who participate in the closed alpha will have access to the Expedition mode and a Horde mode, the latter of which will see them defending against hordes of enemies.

Registration for Scavengers‘ closed alpha will remain open until an undisclosed date in the future. Cross-play between consoles will also be available for the closed alpha – which is certainly a plus. Scavengers is another live-service title from a relatively lesser-known studio, and will be competing directly against games like Splitgate and by extension, Halo Infinite‘s free-to-play offerings.

Bossa Studios, which created Surgeon Simulator and the kitschy I Am Bread, has announced Improbable’s Worlds Adrift which is billed as a multiplayer title set in wide areas with physics-based gameplay. Check out the trailer above for more information.

Bossa co-founder Henrique Olifiers stated on the developer’s official site that, “Think about it: from deathmatch arenas to MMORPGs, you don’t really play with physics. There’s no throwing a player against another to have both falling to the ground; no chopping down a tree to squash a passing-by creature; no having vehicles crash into parts that fly away and hit everyone around.

No crumbling buildings with dangerous debris, no explosions throwing people in different directions…These kind of things don’t exist on multiplayer games, your sword barely grazes your enemies when rampaging through a dungeon with friends. So we set our minds to try to crack this problem and see if we could somehow change the status quo.”

More information will be available on Worlds Adrift this January so stay tuned in the coming weeks.