Thief and System Shock creator Warren Spector reemerged from the shadows to launch Thick As Thieves, a co-op game with clear ties to his previous immersive sims. Even with the low entry price, the game’s leaner approach to the genre failed to amass the guild Spector and OtherSide Entertainment were counting on. Now the game will be ending support for the game, with ongoing server access up in the air.
“My fellow thieves, I am here today to talk about the future,” writes director Jeff Hickman in the latest update. “Working in the gaming industry is at times delightful and at other times heartbreaking. As many of you know, OtherSide Entertainment has lost most of its beloved members and only a very small team remains. This means there will be no further content updates for Thick as Thieves. To be frank, this is not the outcome that any of us want, but we’re facing the reality that ongoing development of extra content, modes and systems is not a viable path.”
Thick As Thieves launched in late May. While sharing many similar elements with Spector’s highly acclaimed Thief games, this co-op focused loot-em-up had a much more pared down design. Noise meters and stealthing about returned, but roomy maps and toothless foes made for a much less intense game. Paired with the low cost, Thick As Thieves feels more attuned as a cross-generational family experience, which Spector is familiar with given his enthusiasm working on the Epic Mickey series. It’s a good niche for a game in this ecosystem, but it doesn’t seem the publisher managed to convey that message.
Developer Otherside Entertainment suffered significant layoffs just one month following launch, with PC Gamer reporting that the entire studio had been whittled to less than ten employees. The latest update says that this remaining team and publisher Megabit will seek a way to keep servers alive, retrofitting the game for peer-to-peer fan servers if the official ones discontinue. The update stresses that solo-player mode will not be affected, even if the game isn’t designed around it.
Even with distinguished pedigrees, online and live-service games are facing a bloodbath. Cause célèbre a decade ago, the deluge of high-profile multiplayer games have faced extreme scrutiny from players, especially after Sony’s expensive Concord debacle. A successful one can keep the lights on indefinitely, but so raise the stakes as immediate player counts make or break these games. Thick As Thieves’ scope was far more modest, but it will be vanishing in the night nonetheless.