It’s always heart-breaking to see a promising new multiplayer game scrapped, but it’s even sadder still to see one wrap up development before it even fully launches. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happened to Battle Aces – an RTS game aiming to deliver super-fast 1v1 and 2v2 matches while still boasting plenty of strategic depth. Despite its promising premise, and the fact that it has a former Starcraft dev as a game director, Battle Aces has reached the end of its journey.
The debut project from Uncapped Games, Battle Aces certainly generated a lot of initial interest among RTS game lovers. First, it had David Kim at the helm – a Blizzard veteran who served as senior game designer on Starcraft 2 for roughly a decade. Secondly, it aimed to break new ground by offering more accessible, rapid multiplayer matches versus the lengthy slogs you can often become embroiled in. It’s been playable already thanks to some early betas, and it looked to be coming along nicely. However, Uncapped says that it can’t see a successful route forward for its ambitious project.
“Today, with deep regret, we are announcing that development on Battle Aces has come to an end,” a statement posted by Uncapped reads. “Creating Battle Aces has been tremendously rewarding and we are grateful for the passion and support from our community. Unfortunately, the returns from early testing were not strong enough to support continued development.
“This decision was not made lightly. Battle Aces represented a bold vision — our attempt to reimagine real-time strategy for a new generation. We set out to create something fast, tactical, and approachable, while still delivering the depth that makes RTS special. Every step of the way, from internal playtests to closed betas, we were fueled by your enthusiasm, feedback, and support.”
The statement doesn’t mention what the future holds for the studio. My fear is that layoffs may follow if it doesn’t have enough funding to spin up a new project post-Battle Aces. If it does, then maybe we’ll see a new strategy game from Kim and the team in the future.
It is a real shame that Battle Aces won’t even get a shot in early access, but in a world where ambitious, big-budget multiplayer games can quickly nosedive into an unprofitable state after launching, this appears to just be a case of Uncapped cutting its losses and not taking the gamble. However, there are still plenty of great free PC games out there that you can enjoy right now and that have bright futures ahead.
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