Ubisoft's free-to-play battle royale Hyper Scape is shutting down after 18 months

Hyper Scape
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

18 months after launch, Hyper Scape is shutting down and its servers are being taken offline, Ubisoft has announced.

"We have made the difficult decision to end development of Hyper Scape and shut the game down as of April 28th," reads an update from Ubisoft. "We set out to create a vertical, close-quarters, and fast-paced shooter experience and we are extremely grateful to our community for joining us on our journey. We will be taking key learnings from this game into future products."

Hyper Scape got off to a relatively promising start - for a free-to-play battle royale at least - when it launched into open beta in July 2020. We had some fun with the beta at the time but ultimately felt that its combat just didn't stack up to its competitors.  

"Spending three hours with the upcoming tech test build, I'm not yet convinced its gunplay is either as robust or satisfying as its peers, but there's certainly fun to be had in experimenting with its table-turning hacks, off-kilter weaponry, and freeform mobility," reads a snippet from our hands-on preview. The response from critics and players across the board has been mixed as well, which likely contributed to disappointing player figures.

Ubisoft admitted back in October 2020 that Hyper Scape had failed to meet expectations, promising a handful of major updates to combat, difficulty, the new player experience, and more. Although Ubisoft hasn't said exactly why they're pulling the plug on Hyper Scape, it seems those changes weren't enough.

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Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.