- Daybreak to shut down PlanetSide Arena servers but insists it remains "deeply committed to this franchise" - 14 December 2019
Daybreak Games has confirmed it's switching off PlanetSide Arena's servers at 5pm PT on 10th January, 2020 (that's 1am on the 11th January UK time), just three months after it launched in early access. As spotted by Blue via our pals at VG24/7 , executive producer Andy Sites said it was a "difficult decision" but while the team had "set out with an ambitious vision for a game that combined the massive-scale combat and camaraderie of PlanetSide through a diverse collection of new game modes", it became clear in early access that population levels "make it impossible to sustain the gameplay experience we envisioned". The team says it is "actively working with Steam" to ensure that all players who made purchases during its early access release will automatically receive a full refund to their steam wallets. Read more
- PlanetSide Arena will shut down after only four months - 14 December 2019
Daybreak Game Company last night announced plans to shut down PlanetSide Arena on January 10th, 2020. The free-to-play battle royale FPS spun off from PlanetSide 2 launched into early access on September 19th, so that’s less than four months. Daybreak say it hadn’t attracted enough players to sustain the sort of large battles it’s meant to. The servers will shut down, the game will become unplayable, and people who paid real money for DLC or microntransaction cash will receive a refund. (more…)
- Planetside Arena is closing in January - 14 December 2019
Planetside Arena went into Early Access on Steam in September, but seemed to run into trouble less than a month later when developer Daybreak Games laid off an unspecified number of employees, including members of the Planetside Arena team. Two months on, the studio has announced that that the game is not working out, and so servers will be closed in January. "While our team set out with an ambitious vision for a game that combined the massive-scale combat and camaraderie of PlanetSide through a diverse collection of new game modes, it has become clear after several months in Early Access that our population levels make it impossible to sustain the gameplay experience we envisioned," executive producer Andy Sites explained in a " sunset letter ." "As a result, PlanetSide Arena will formally shut down servers on January 10th, 2020 at 5:00 pm PST. We are actively working with Steam to ens…
- A Message From the Development Team - 13 December 2019
Hello Everyone, After careful consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down PlanetSide Arena servers. While our team set out with an ambitious vision for a game that combined the massive-scale combat and camaraderie of PlanetSide through a diverse collection of new game modes, it has become clear after several months in Early Access that our population levels make it impossible to sustain the gameplay experience we envisioned. As a result, PlanetSide Arena will formally shut down servers on January 10th, 2020 at 5:00 PM (PST). We are actively working with Steam to ensure that all players who made purchases during Early Access will automatically receive a full refund to their Steam Wallet after servers shut down in January. Thank you again for your loyalty and support during Beta and Early Access. Your feedback was invaluable, and your enduring passion for PlanetSide rema…
- PlanetSide Arena the "stepping stone" to PlanetSide 3 - 19 October 2019
The battle royale-focused sci-fi shooter PlanetSide Arena is intended to be the "stepping stone" to PlanetSide 3, its developers have said. In a post on the PlanetSide 2 website , executive producer Andy Sites said PlanetSide Arena, which recently released in Early Access form, is designed to link present day PlanetSide 2 and PlanetSide 3 storylines and give the developers a platform to try out new features and styles of play. While Sites failed to mention a release window for PlanetSide 3, he did say it'll expand from the current battlefields of Auraxis, "to full-fledged galactic war with empires exploring, colonising and conquering one another within an expansive galaxy." Read more
- H1Z1 developers Daybreak layoff yet more employees - 12 October 2019
H1Z1 and PlanetSide 2 developers Daybreak Game Company went through another round of layoffs yesterday, though the number of employees affected is unknown. This is the third wave since the beginning of 2018. (more…)
- Daybreak Games makes multiple layoffs, including on Planetside Arena team - 12 October 2019
Daybreak Games has laid off multiple employees, including some that were working on battle royale Planetside Arena , which went into Early Access last month. The scale of the layoffs at the H1Z1 and Planetside 2 studio is not yet clear, but one developer who lost his job said multiple teams had been hit, while Planetside Arena's lead designer said his team had "lost some really good people today". In a statement to Gamasutra , Daybreak Games confirmed it had laid off "some employees" as part of a restructuring. "We are taking steps to improve our business and to support our long-term vision for the existing franchises and development of new games," it said. "This will include a realignment of the company into separate franchise teams, which will allow us to highlight their expertise, better showcase the games they work on, and ultimately provide tailored experiences for our players…
- Our first impressions of PlanetSide Arena s chaotic team battle royale - 20 September 2019
Raise the purple flag, comrades. PlanetSide Arena came out yesterday, bringing some royale to PlanetSide 2 s vast battles in a spin-off game of jeeps and jetpacks. Its big thing is that everyone has a quad in their back pocket , but another major draw are the big 12-person team battles. That s in keeping with the scale of the bottomless futurewar, but is it as shooty and adrenal-gland-taxing as other battle royale games? Sin and Brendy crash landed on the murderplanet and joined some big fights to find out. (more…)
- PlanetSide Arena is now in Early Access, and we've got 30 Recruit Edition keys to give away - 19 September 2019
Last week we got our first hands-on time with PlanetSide Arena's massive 240-player battle royale mode. It was chaotic and fun , and today the multiplayer shooter enters Early Access on Steam so you can try it yourself. PlanetSide Arena is free to play in Early Access, but there's a Recruit Edition selling for $20 that comes with 80 standard crates and an alpha strike banner. We've got 30 Steam keys for the Recruit Edition, and we've giving them away, raffle-style! To enter the raffle, just enter your email in the widget below. We won't see the email address you enter and Godankey won't save it—it's only used to send the key to the winners. ( Here's a direct link if you don't see the embed below.) The raffle will be active until 9 am PDT tomorrow, at which point it will close and we'll send out keys to the winners. Good luck!
- PlanetSide Arena Now Available Free in Early Access! - 19 September 2019
https://youtu.be/8AW0TuDUt5I Gear up, Mercenaries, PlanetSide Arena is now available for FREE on Steam Early Access! This is just the beginning of our epic journey to bring you the ultimate massive multiplayer sci-fi arena shooter. If you’ve been with us since we first began playtesting in Beta, a HUGE thank you. We never would have made it this far without you! To all of you new recruits, we’re thrilled to introduce you to the next phase in the war for Auraxis! To DOWNLOAD and get started, click here to visit the PlanetSide Arena Steam page. AVAILABLE GAME MODES (EARLY ACCESS) We launch today with two initial game modes: SQUADS 300-player match-based game mode 12 players per Squad TEAMS 150-player match-based game mode 3 players per Squad PlanetSide Arena is an ambitious project that will ultimately feature a variety of match-based game modes, some capable of supporting up to 1,000 pla…
- PlanetSide Arena's 240-player battle royale is pure chaos - 12 September 2019
In battle royale, when the map has shrunk down to a tiny circle of safe territory, how many players are usually left? Five? Ten? That's typically how it goes, but in the PlanetSide Arena battle royale match I'm playing there are still nearly 50 players left, representing nine different teams, all trying to squeeze into the tiny remaining circle of safety. That's a lot of people. And we're not all gonna fit. That's because this match began with a total of 240 players: 20 teams of 12. And given that in PlanetSide Arena you can revive fallen teammates and resurrect dead ones, knocking someone down doesn't mean you're knocking them out. In a match with so many players that still, somehow, only takes about 20 minutes to finish, you can wind up clashing with the same teams and players again and again. There's 240 players, but it feels like more. And tha…
- We're giving away 30 Steam Early Access keys for PlanetSide Arena - 12 September 2019
Update: The raffle is now over. Congratulations to the winner! PlanetSide Arena , the large-scale, match-based sci-fi shooter from Daybreak launching at the end of September, is hosting a demo on Thursday, September 12, starting at 10 am PDT / 5 pm GMT. It's a pretty quick demo—it will only be active for two hours—but we'll be there playing and with a bit of luck, you can be there too. We've got 30 Steam keys to give away for this PlanetSide Arena demo, which we know isn't enough for everyone. But below you can enter a raffle for a chance to win a Steam key and get an early look at the game. The keys, should you win one, will also work while PlanetSide Arena is in Early Access starting on September 19. ( Update: Originally, this post stated the keys would only work for the two-hour demo.) Demo date: Thursday, September 12 Start time: 10 am PDT / 5 pm GM…
- PlanetSide Arena footage shows off its large-scale squads mode - 9 September 2019
With PlanetSide Arena launching this month, albeit in Early Access, Daybreak has given us our first look at the large-scale battle royale in action, specifically its squads mode, featuring teams of 12 in battles that can support up to 300 players. It will be available at the start of Early Access, and you can take a look above.  It doesn't look quite as thrilling as the premise makes it sound. The footage was captured during a developer test, it should be noted, so it's not the scale that you might see when the battle royale goes live. Still, it's a disappointingly underwhelming debut, especially given the delays. It does at least end in a tank battle and an orbital strike.  More vehicles will be flung into the fray eventually, including flying ones, bringing it ever closer to PlanetSide 2, but with discrete matches and a shrinking battlefield. You'll still…
- PlanetSide Arena joins the battle royale of early access battle royales next month - 29 August 2019
The spaceman ‘n’ vehicle murderfest of MMOFPS PlanetSide will soon be condensed for PlanetSide Arena , with developers Daybreak Game Company today announcing an early access launch on September 19th. The PlanetSide spin-off will have folks shooting each other to bits while romping around on foot, in vehicles, and dangling precariously from jetpacks, just in a big battle royale rather than persistent faction wars. At launch Arena will support 300-player matches in modes with squads of three soldiers or teams of twelve, then is due to grow larger. (more…)
- Planetside Arena enters Early Access in September with 300-player battles - 29 August 2019
Planetside Arena , the next class-based multiplayer shooter from Daybreak Games, was originally planned for January of this year. Its first delay pushed it back to March , and then—perhaps blindsided by the surprise announcement and massive success of class-based battle royale Apex Legends in February—the release slipped again to summer . Here we are in summer, and we've got a new date for Planetside Arena's launch into Steam Early Access: September 19 , just a few weeks away. This initial launch of Planetside Arena will feature a teams mode, with three players per team, and a squads mode, with 12 players on a squad, duking it out in 300-player battle royale matches. Future plans include new features like a solos mode, aircraft, additional classes, and a mode featuring 300-player squads ... which would imply (at least) a 600-player match. That's a lot of pla…
- PlanetSide Arena delayed again, now to summer - 18 February 2019
Daybreak Game Company have delayed the launch of PlanetSide Arena for the second time since announcing it in December, doing sterling work to counter the unrealistic expectations of air travel efficiency fostered by other battle royale games. No, you don’t queue for a plane for twenty seconds, take off on time, then land exactly where you want. You will, in reality, wait indefinitely to even see a plane, with each short-notice delay making you wonder more if you’ll ever even get anywhere. Thank you, Daybreak, for delaying PlanetSide’s battle royale spin-off until this summer and, in doing so, teaching kids that the real-world answer to “Where we dropping?” is “700 miles away from your luggage.” (more…)
- PlanetSide Arena delayed again, pre-orders refunded - 16 February 2019
PlanetSide Arena adapts the MMO shooter into a match-based format, with a battle royale mode as well as 250v250 team battles. It was supposed to launch on January 29, but just a few days before that date, Daybreak Game Company announced that it was delayed until March. After a closed beta, Daybreak has again decided to postpone Arena's launch, this time until the summer, when it'll also release on PS4. The announcement post doesn't offer a firm reason for the postponement, only saying that "delivering the most polished version of PlanetSide Arena ... outweighs any other consideration."  Because of the delay, Daybreak will be canceling the planned Founder's Season (a pre-launch access period) and refunding all PlanetSide Arena pre-orders. Presumably, interested parties will be able to pre-order it again—re-pre-order?—once the new release date is fir…
- PlanetSide Arena delayed until March, closed beta launches next week - 26 January 2019
Multiplayer FPS PlanetSide Arena , which was due to launch next week, has been delayed until March 26, developer Daybreak Games has announced. The shooter is set to launch with a 150-player battle royale mode and a 250v250 team fight, and while Daybreak has made "significant strides" towards getting it where it needs to be, there are still "crucial feature enhancements and core systems improvements we can make that will lift PlanetSide Arena to the level it deserves", it said in a blog post . Instead of a full release on January 29 as planned, Daybreak will launch a closed beta on January 30 to allow for more player testing and feedback. Everyone that pre-orders the game will be able to play the beta, or you can sign up here for a chance to get a key without pre-ordering.  Everyone that pre-orders will also get access to the Founders Season, which starts on February 20. It's n…
- Enter to win a copy of PlanetSide Arena with closed beta access - 14 January 2019
PlanetSide 2's persistent, massively-multiplayer war kicked off back in 2012, and it was brilliant —although somewhat underappreciated. That war hasn't ended, but the current trend in shooters calls for self-contained matches a la Fortnite and PUBG, and PlanetSide Arena is Daybreak's answer. The focus remains on scale: At launch, Arena will include a 150-player battle royale mode, as well as 'Massive Clash,' which pits two 250-player armies against each other for a total of 500 players. Check out Chris' preview for more on those modes and what's planned post-launch. PlanetSide Arena will go for $20 when it releases on Steam on January 29, but there's also a $40 Legendary Edition which includes closed beta access ( beta timing TBD ). Daybreak has given us 100 Steam keys for the latter to give away to our readers. Here's what a key will…
