Former Diablo's Rival Is Going Offline. Wolcen Devs’ Decision Didn't Please Players
Wolcen was supposed to be one of the contenders to the throne occupied by Diablo, but after 4 difficult years, the developers are going to turn off multiplayer and end the development of this game.
Many titles in recent years have attempted to dethrone the Diablo series in the hack'n'slash genre. Not all potential Diablo rivals are successful, just as not every idea from the devs of the Infernal series is particularly fortunate. Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is facing such a fate after over 4 years, as it will soon lose its multiplayer mode, among other things.
In an announcement published on Reddit and Steam, the Wolcen Studio team announced that after years of releasing updates, they have encountered "foundational hurdles that prevent further improvements under the existing framework."
Therefore, from September 3, the multiplayer mode will be disabled and the title will no longer be developed. This will allow the devs to focus on new projects "carrying forward the lessons learned from Wolcen."
Wolcen: killed and unfinished
The players' reaction was predictable. Shortly after the announcement, there were numerous critical comments on Steam, and as a result, only 16% of all opinions posted by users in the last 30 days are positive.
These reviews aren't many: as just 163 with more than 61,000 total reviews since launch on Steam. The point is that prior to this, Wolcen fans weren't exactly praising the game much. It's enough to say that even after looking at all the reviews, almost half of them are negative.
If this doesn't prove the players' attitude towards the current state of the title, the comments under Wolcen Team's new announcement leave no doubt: many fans don't have a good opinion about Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem.
According to them, the title still cannot be considered “ finished,” and the developers have long been insufficiently supporting the game. The last major patch was released in November 2023 with Wolcen's release on consoles. Therefore, some Internet users make it clear that they won't support the developer's future projects.
Apart from these complaints, players are calling for the devs to at least provide a local multiplayer mode.