Edge Case Games ends development of free-to-play Fractured Space

Edge Case Games is ending development of its free-to-play game Fractured Space and phasing out the game’s premium currency as a result. 

The developer’s post on Steam doesn’t dive into the circumstances leading up to the decision, noting instead that moving on from Fractured Space will give the team the opportunity to pursue new projects. 

The free-to-play game launched on Steam in 2016 and the team has since been supporting the project through additional updates and DLC. Edge Case maintains that the game itself will stay online “for the foreseeable future,” leaving the game space sim playable even as development winds down.

The developer has already pulled the game’s DLC from sale, and says that the game’s next and final update will remove the premium “platinum” purchasable currency from the game entirely and sell all items that would’ve required platinum for the regular in-game “credits” currency instead.

Fractured Space unfortunately follows in the footsteps of several other online games that have lost support just recently. Splash Damage ended development for its free-to-play Dirty Bomb last week, saying that the costs of creating new DLC and features for the game were too high for the actual return. WildStar dev Carbine Studios was entirely shut down by parent company NCSoft in September and its flagship game was put to rest weeks later. Another space sim was met with trouble earlier this month as well, as news emerged that the developer Six Foot laid off as many as 45 developers following the quieter-than-expected Steam launch of Dreadnaught.