GamesEspecially after Palworld, the death of Blizzard’s survival game makes me yearn for a AAA take on PC’s most vibrant genreWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesEspecially after Palworld, the death of Blizzard’s survival game makes me yearn for a AAA take on PC’s most vibrant genreWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Blizzard)
Microsoft has laid off 1,900 staff across its gaming division, reportedly gutting entire departments across the company. Among them was the team behind Odyssey, the little-known Blizzard survival game that would have occupied the studio’s first new IP since 2014’s Overwatch,that has now been canceled. In development for six years and officially announced in 2022, Odyssey represents decades of lost person-hours. But more than that, it’s a sign of Blizzard,Microsoft, and perhaps the AAA industry as a whole, utterly failing to adapt to one of the greatest genre successes of the last 20 years.
The sheer, enduring popularity of the genre makes the decision to cancel Odyssey - a game that so much time, money, and effort has been put into - a baffling one. Even more surprising are the circumstances around its failure. A report fromBloombergstates that Odyssey suffered as a result of “technical issues” surrounding its game engine. Blizzard executives reportedly chose to switch away from Unreal Engine, moving to an internal engine that the company had primarily developed for mobile gaming.
The decision behind that is said to have stemmed from Blizzard’s desire for Odyssey to support 100 players on the same map at the same time, but it led to extreme slowdown on the project, with Bloomberg reporting artists would have to prototype work in Unreal, knowing that it would be “discarded” rather than transferred to the new engine.
I won’t pretend to understand the complexities of game development, nor to suggest that the loss of any single game is worse than the lost livelihoods of nearly 2,000 developers. But the fact that a new Blizzard IP in a perennially popular genre would be left to suffer through development like this is truly astonishing. And while Microsoft as a whole might borrow some survival game credit from its ownership of Minecraft and the existence of Grounded and State of Decay, the treatment of Odyssey is, to me, indicative of the AAA industry’s lack of respect or appreciation for one of the most successful genres in the world.
Survivor
Of all the top-rated survival games on Steam, not a single one comes from a major developer (unless you count the survival tags added to games like Resident Evil 4 and Dying Light). And even when we look to games like Grounded, Minecraft, or State of Decay, we find games or series that were already successful - or at least in active development - before Microsoft bought the studios that were making them.
There are myriad reasons why a major publisher might steer away from survival games: these are titles unforgiving enough that they’re thought to not appeal to the mass market; they’re complicated to make and balance without relying on early access, which big studios tend to steer away from; and they often require years of support but are hard to monetize in the long-term. I also wonder whether a proud legacy of early access jank has soured executives on the very idea of survival games - these are projects that tend to look and feel a certain way, and that way is not the kind of high budget blockbuster that major studios tend to pin hundreds of millions of dollars on.
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Yet it remains the case that these games can be defining hits. Valheim is still a notable cultural touchstone in this genre. I imagine Palworld has already become something similar. Not all of these games hold attention forever, but the ones that do are still boasting massive player counts the better part of a decade after their original releases. Yet one of the only truly high profile AAA attempts to to break into the genre has been scrapped. The developers who poured years of their lives into Odyssey deserved better, and I’m sure that the passion and hard work they expended would have created something excellent, whether or not they could fit 100 players into a server. But in the increasingly risk-averse upper echelons of the industry are people who don’t see the promise in a genre that consistently beats expectations, and now we might never know what a Blizzard-grade survival game would have looked like.
For now, here’s our list of thebest survival games.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
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5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
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Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
1
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
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2
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4
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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
1Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”
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1
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2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2
Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
3
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4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4
Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”