Ubisoft shooter wanted to be a fast-paced twitch experiment – now being discontinued

Almost two years ago, the shooter “Hyper Scape” prepared to offer a fast, exciting alternative in the competitive Battle Royale market. Twitch should also play a role in this. But now the game is about to end.

This is what Ubisoft says about Hyper Scape: The end of Hyper Scape is announced on the official Ubisoft website.

“We have made the difficult decision to end development on Hyper Scape and retire the game effective April 28th. We wanted to create a vertical, fast-paced shooter experience in a tight space, and we’re very grateful to our community for joining us on our journey. We will incorporate key learnings from this game into future products.

via Ubisoft.com

A few words of thanks to the community follow. However, an official reason for the end of Hyper Scape is missing in the statement.

However, shortly after the release, the shooter had to struggle with the first problems that could never be completely overcome.

What game was Hyper Scape?

Twitch played this role: Hyper Scape appeared all of a sudden in the summer of 2020. Even literally, because instead of big advance notices, the Battle Royale was presented directly by numerous streamers on Twitch. The launch caused quite a stir and Hyper Scape reached six-figure viewership.

If you followed the streams there, you could also secure access via Twitch Drops to get into a technology test. The early focus on Twitch was no coincidence, because the streaming platform should also play a role in the game itself.

The Twitch chat was able to participate directly in the events via the “Crowncast” extension. Viewers could use voting to trigger events such as low gravity or revealing players on the map.

In addition, streamers you were watching could invite you to play along.

What was the problem? However, the integration of Twitch only works if a game is also streamed and followed a lot. Recently, however, Hyper Scape usually only had double-digit viewership (via Twitch Metrics).

In addition, the Battle Royale market is already quite full with games like Fortnite, Apex Legends or Warzone and was already there when it was released.

This is how the gameplay went: Aside from the twitch component, Hyper Scape relied on a futuristic look that was a bit reminiscent of worlds like “Tron”. In Battle Royale, players had to fight for victory while the playable zone got smaller and smaller.

Hyper Scape focused on speed. Big jumps, fast slides and tons of skills – called “hacks” – transported players up, down, forwards and backwards at breakneck speed.

However, it wasn’t for everyone. Among other things, streamer “Nadeshot” explained at the time that he needed a lot of energy drinks to be able to keep up somehow. MeinMMO author Jürgen Horn also said at the time: “I played the fast shooter Hyper Scape and unfortunately I’m too old for it.”

Revisions to the game were announced as early as October 2020, which should also lower the barriers to entry into the game.

According to Ubisoft, Hyper Scape would have caused problems for players who were new to Battle Royale: It was “too difficult to aim, track and constantly distribute damage to other players and eliminate them, especially on the console,” it said at the time.

See also  Quake: Unreleased Game Boy Advance prototype discovered

In addition, players should get more to do and progression systems for long-term motivation were introduced. It is now clear that it was no longer enough to reverse the trend. In April 2022, Hyper Scape will close its doors.

It’s quite possible that Hyper Scape won’t be the last game to say goodbye to in 2022. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch shows here which MMOs could still disappear this year: “I predict: These 6 MMOs will die in 2022”.