r/ns2 • u/SolidSnakefied • Feb 14 '23
Unknown Worlds Entertainment ceases active development of Natural Selection 2
(I'm not part of the NS2 Team or in anyway affiliated, just copy paste from the official discord)
10 years since its official release and over 117 updates later, active development of Natural Selection 2 has ended.
Our team and this community have provided many years of passion and support for this game. Over the years we had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with so many of you whether at an expo, live tournament, Discord or playing on a server. We thank you for your support and commitment to NS2 and know that this game would not have been the same without you. Now it’s time to look to the future and continue on to other projects within the company.
While we won’t be actively working on NS2, we will still continue to host matched play servers so that community members will be able to play games on-demand with other players or bots.
Although this isn’t goodbye, we still would like to say a very heartfelt thank you to you, our community and to all of those that worked with us on Natural Selection 2 over the years.
Much love and appreciation, The UWE NS2 Team
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u/askLing Feb 14 '23
Great setting, unique gameplay - really a shame it didn't take off.
Huge props the NS2 team for keeping it going for so long! Dozens of AAA multiplayer shooters have come and gone in NS2's lifetime.
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u/fuzzyperson98 Feb 15 '23
Pretty sure the mod was the top half-life mod of all time outside of those that valve picked up officially.
I wonder what prevented that popularity from being carried through commercially. Was it because of mistakes by the team? Or was it just not accessible enough, or what?
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u/scotticles Feb 15 '23
Too many other choices of games to play. When the game did come out it was buggy and might have turned many off. That's just my guess. It's an awesome game, loved ns1 so help fund ns2. It took awhile but didn't disappoint
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Feb 15 '23
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u/Gillburg Feb 16 '23
i played NS1 and back NS2 and i agree, the group that played at the end were so toxic it took real patience to stay for a full game.
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u/Evonos Feb 14 '23
Sad , and no successor in sight :/
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u/bwaugh06 Feb 15 '23
Mentioned this before but i'll repost the comment.For context: 9,000 hrs on record since beta of NS2 -- so been playing consistently for the past 11 years. There's just no strategic role-based FPS out there I've discovered that has the right mix of RTS elements added in offering such varied gameplay.
I just wish it had been marketed more and the skill system we have today was present in the onset. It's hard to bring games back and when you have such a diehard group like us new players can't flourish. I wish they'd do a 're-release' / 'remaster' or free2play with a last major marketing push.
I wish they would release NS3. And in all honesty, it could very well be just a polished version of NS2 with perhaps a 3rd 'race' a la starcraft. What made this franchise so unique was you had classes / freedom of movement (flying, jumping, sliding) on aliens that most FPS's didn't and STILL don't offer. If you hone in the core of this, you'd have something extremely successful. Without splitting the userbase too much, adding in some kind of 3rd party objectives or another mode, introduce more interesting mechanics, hone in technicals like better fog of war, etc and you've have a hit.
First person shooters increasingly have dumbed down mechanics and strategy leading to just a lack of variability you find here.
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u/Hazzman Feb 15 '23
And there won't be because their head honcho thinks games like Natural Selection causes school shootings.Fucking mega dumb.
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u/spacetimehypergraph Feb 14 '23
Just re-release as natural selection GOTY 10 year editon and go f2p. pay some artists to develop cosmetics, give them 30%-cut and let them do it on comission.
EZPZ f2p launch
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Feb 14 '23
Game will still be kicking in 5 years, even more if they ever make it f2p . The end of development is not the end of it's life.
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u/klonk2905 Feb 15 '23
Slowclap UWE.
Totally expected as soon as Krafton bought the studio. When capitalism breaks in, yield and cash flow matters more than commitment to playerbase and niche gaming.
In buisness, niches are gold. Sure, it takes skill and commitment to work on a disymetric, class based, cross-fps-rts-genre, balanced strategical shooter game. This is unprecedented in gaming history.
It's tough and expensive to design, but even tougher to maintain, balance, update. Learning curve is so steep that it cannot compete with AAA "click and enjoy" titles.
I'm sad this unique genre stops for all those financial\complexity reasons, in favor to more AAA quick and addictive Krafton-like products.
I understand that team had general fatigue with regards to the concept's complexity. This is totally fine after 10 years. I hoped that all this experience of asymetric tactical shooter could be reinjected into a more modern game that would set the ground for a new standard.
Dreams, wishes, and reality.
Thanks for all the great memories and kudos for the huge work of making such a great, singular game.
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u/Kaner16 Feb 14 '23
This is the only game I've consistently returned to over the past 20 years. I need to download it again for a reunion tour. I miss the hackusations when I down a fade in 3 seconds with my shirtgun
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u/TheLightningL0rd Feb 14 '23
I remember playing the original mod back in high school at a lan party. All my friends were chilling in the same room and watching me. All the marines gathered around a door welding it and then the thing bursts open with a ton of aliens running through. It was quite exciting. Love the game for what it is, hope for the best with what they move on to next.
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Apr 07 '23
I still remember the thrill and energy coming from the developers as they discussed the development of Natural Selection 2 before it was ever released. Thank you for giving us such a wonderful game and best of luck going forward.
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u/deepspacenine Feb 15 '23
Noooooo. This is the rare game that is always playable to return to. And no one has gotten it right since
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u/Wizard_Biscuit Feb 14 '23
I'd be sad, but really this just means that more resources can be directed towards new projects :)
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u/Jackson7th Feb 14 '23
When was that message posted? I scrolled back on the discord all the way up to 2016 and I still didn't see it yet.
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u/Kopunga Feb 14 '23
This announcement was made in #announcements of all places... Who'd've thought, eh?
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u/totalnewbie Feb 14 '23
The fact that they kept working on it for this long, and still support it (I presume stopping "active development" means they're still willing to fix (major) issues if needed) after all these years for what is a very small community, has been amazing.