The multiplayer title will remain online for the time being.
Deceive Inc developer Sweet Bandits Studios has shut down.
The Canadian indie studio broke the news in a short forum post and explained it has reached "breaking point."
"There is no easy way to say this: The Sweet Bandits team is no more. After a long and difficult road of trying to get Deceive Inc in a state where it could thrive, we have reached the breaking point for the studio, unable to continue this adventure with you," reads the post.
"While this is a moment of great sadness for us, we are happy to have been given the chance to create this universe and share it with you all. We were amazed by the passion of this community and this has been a driving force for us all along, pushing us to try and make this project reach the potential it has. We’ve put our heart and soul into this game and nothing makes us happier than seeing it resonate with other people across the world."
The Sweet Bandits website states the studio had 18 employees.
Deceive Inc launched in March 2023 and currently has a 'very positive' rating on Steam from almost 4,500 user reviews. Sweet Bandits has been unable to make the project work despite that positive reception.
SteamDB estimates the multiplayer stealth shooter has struggled to attract more than 200 concurrent players over the past six months. It reportedly delivered an all-time peak of 8,632 concurrent players in May 2023, but engagement has seemingly fallen dramatically since then.
Deceive Inc is also available on consoles such as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S. It's unclear how the title has performed on those platforms.
Sweet Bandits is now working with publisher Tripwire Interactive in a bid to maintain the title. "We are considering options, with the goal of maintaining the game that we all love," it added. "We will share news with everyone once we have more details. In the meantime, servers and game access will continue as they have been."
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