14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Bethesda is informing us that at the moment it is evaluating the objectives that it has for the in-development Battlecry experience and that it might make an announcement about the future of the project in the coming weeks.
The company has issued a statement to Progressbar, an Australian site, which states, "We have concerns about the Battlecry game and whether it is meeting the objectives we have for it. We are evaluating what improvements the game needs to meet our quality standards. The studio remains busy during this process on multiple projects."
The statement is unclear on purpose and suggests that the title might not be offering the kind of gameplay experience that Bethesda was expecting it to deliver at this stage.
It's unclear whether the fact that Battlecry Studios is still busy working means that a solution is being sought to make sure that the game improves in the coming months or whether another title might become the focus of the company.
It will be also interesting to see whether Bethesda has plans to continue to show the game to the public, even if a beta for it was planned to be offered before the end of the year in Australia and New Zealand.
Battlecry was supposed to use a free-to-play model
The title will use a third-person perspective and has core action mechanics, allowing gamers to choose a character and then jump with teammates into a map, using their special abilities and weapons in order to secure victory.
I got hands-on with Battlecry during E3 two years ago, and the experience, while unpolished, was fast and enjoyable, although only a limited number of characters were offered at that point.
The development team wanted to deliver a seamless movement system in order to keep the experience very dynamic, with an Adrenaline meter used to power ultimate attacks and other special abilities.
The problem with the game might be that Bethesda could not see how the game could capture the attention of players in the long term in order to make the free-to-play business model work for the experience.
Bethesda will probably clarify the status of Battlecry in the coming weeks.