It is called a game Cheat Inc.Which launched on PC and consoles in March 2023, the developer has decided to rebuild its backend to help fans keep it alive as it closes its doors. While Cheat Inc. Not the first game to put its future in the hands of its PC players, it has earned a lot of respect from gamers for going the extra mile and reworking its entire backend to avoid shutdowns.
Publisher-imposed deaths for online games have been a hot topic in gaming communities in recent years. One of the most notable examples came when Ubisoft decided to shut down the crew After nearly 10 years of cooperation. Ubisoft's choice sparked the Stop Killing Games movement, which continues to push back against publishers sunsetting their games.
Deceive Inc. Will continue to live in the hands of the players
Announced in a Steam community post, developer Sweet Bandit said, “However [we] Had to stop [our] The door, we don't believe Cheat Inc. Quiet must be lost because the services behind it are not sustainable forever.” Despite many technical challenges, the team has reworked the game's backend to support community-hosted servers. Sweet Bandit says many features and functions have already been successfully converted to work with dedicated servers, but the team needs one more month to release the update.
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Developer Sweet Bandit plans to keep several official servers, including dedicated console servers, online as long as possible so players can continue to find games quickly and easily.
For the uninitiated, Cheat Inc. It mixes several genres including social slasher, FPS, and hero shooter, but it also gets some standard features of battle royale games. It pits three teams of players against each other on a map where they can disguise themselves as NPCs. Each team must avoid detection, gather intel, hack secure areas, and take out objectives without being killed by rival spies. Interestingly, SteamDB data suggests that the game is not attracting many concurrent players as of this writing, but the developer is committed to letting players keep the game alive despite those numbers.
Why AAA games generally avoid community-hosted and P2P servers
Sweet Bandit's post also sheds light on why many AAA games don't transition to peer-to-peer and community-hosted servers before shutting down. According to the indie studio, “Replacing the backend for a live multiplayer game means rebuilding a lot of technology that players don't normally see. It touches almost every part of how players find games, join servers, manage progress, unlock content and more.” In other words, the more complex the multiplayer game, the harder it is to support community-hosted servers.
Cheat Inc. Costs around $20 on Steam, PlayStation Store, and Xbox Game Store. Those who want to join its community should also know that it has mostly positive reviews on all platforms, with many players describing it as one of the most entertaining cheat games available. Now that Cheat Inc. Set to join the list of games kept alive by their community, potential buyers can feel more confident that their $20 investment won't just disappear.
- issued
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March 21, 2023
- ESRB
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T for teenagers because of tobacco use, violence
- developer(s)
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Sweet Bandit Studio
Image via Sweet Bandit
Image via Sweet Bandit
Image via Sweet Bandit