Warren Spector’s Thick As Thieves Shuts Down After Two Months
▼ Summary
– Warren Spector’s co-op immersive sim *Thick as Thieves* launched in late May but failed to attract enough players despite its low price.
– Developer OtherSide Entertainment has lost most of its staff, leaving only a small team, so no further content updates will be made for the game.
– The game features stealth mechanics from Spector’s *Thief* series but has roomier maps and weaker enemies, making it a less intense, family-friendly experience.
– The remaining team and publisher Megabit are exploring ways to keep servers online, potentially switching to peer-to-peer fan servers if official servers shut down.
– The game’s failure reflects a broader industry trend where live-service multiplayer games face extreme player scrutiny and risk failure if initial player counts are low.
Warren Spector, the legendary designer behind Thief and System Shock, recently stepped back into the spotlight with Thick As Thieves, a co-op heist game that wore its immersive sim influences on its sleeve. Despite a low entry price and a streamlined take on the genre, the game failed to build the audience that Spector and developer OtherSide Entertainment had hoped for. Now, just two months after launch, the studio is pulling the plug on further development, leaving the fate of its online servers uncertain.
“My fellow thieves, I am here today to talk about the future,” wrote director Jeff Hickman in a somber community 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.”
Launched in late May, Thick As Thieves borrowed familiar stealth mechanics from Spector’s acclaimed Thief series, including noise meters and shadow-hugging gameplay. However, it stripped away much of the tension. Roomy maps and non-threatening AI enemies made for a far less intense experience, and the game’s modest price tag positioned it as a more accessible, almost family-friendly adventure. That’s a niche Spector knows well, given his work on the Epic Mickey series, but the publisher struggled to communicate that vision to a broader audience.
The situation took a sharp turn for the worse just one month after launch, when OtherSide Entertainment suffered major layoffs. According to PC Gamer, the studio was reduced to fewer than ten employees. The latest update confirms that this skeleton crew, alongside publisher Megabit, will explore options to keep the game alive. If official servers go dark, they plan to retrofit the game for peer-to-peer fan servers. The update also emphasizes that solo-player mode will remain functional, even if the game was never built around it.
Even with a pedigree like Spector’s, the current market for online and live-service games is brutal. Once a gold rush for the industry, high-profile multiplayer titles now face withering scrutiny from players, especially after high-profile flops like Sony’s Concord. A successful live-service game can sustain a studio indefinitely, but the stakes are razor-thin: immediate player counts can make or break a project. Thick As Thieves may have been more modest in scope, but it will still vanish into the night, another casualty of an unforgiving ecosystem.
(Source: Kotaku)
