Amazon retires two Crucible modes to make Heart of Hives "shine"

(Image credit: Amazon Games)

Amazon has confirmed it will be "retiring" two of Crucible's three modes just weeks after the free-to-play game was launched. 

Crucible's new free-to-play shooter from Amazon released on May 20, and shortly before it was launched, developer Amazon released three new videos to show off Heart of Hives, Alpha Hunters, Harvester Command. However, the latter two modes – Alpha Hunters and Harvester Command – are now being retired in order to permit the team to put "all of [its] efforts" into Heart of the Hives.

"The community has rallied around Heart of the Hives in an amazing way. Moving forward, we’ll be putting all of our efforts towards Heart of the Hives and what we can do to make that mode shine. Focusing on one mode allows us to refine the design of core systems without the compromises we needed to make to support three game modes," wrote Colin Johanson in a developer update.

"This does mean that we’ll be retiring Harvester Command and Alpha Hunters for the foreseeable future. We'll be removing Alpha Hunters from the list of game modes soon, and Harvester Command once our new player experience has been improved."

Johanson also confirmed that the game will remain in a "pre-season" state as the studio works to implement "top priority" features, such as voice chat.

"While there’s been a great response to the premise of our game from many players, we’ve also heard the feedback that there are features that we need to add as a top priority, like voice chat," Johanson added. "We agree, and we’re going to stay in Pre-Season until those features and polish are in Crucible. 

"We’re also going to use our time in Pre-Season as a chance to go all-in on the parts of Crucible that are resonating most strongly with you, our community."

Here are 10 things you need to know before playing the free-to-play hero shooter Crucible.

Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.