The Chinese mega-corporation has announced plans to shut down Synced just a year after its launch, marking the end of yet another live-service game in an increasingly competitive genre.
Synced is a free-to-play cooperative shooter developed by NExT Studios and published by Level Infinite, a global gaming brand from Tencent. The game was released on PC via Steam in September 2023, but after peaking at 10,272 concurrent players on Valve’s platform, player counts declined rapidly. Just one month after release, the game struggled to reach 1,000 concurrent players on Steam. At the time of this article’s publication, the 24-hour peak was just 23. Overall Steam user reviews were “mixed,” but recent reviews have dropped drastically to “mostly negative.”
IN note for players who remainTencent said Synced “will be retired” in September of this year, a year after its launch. The servers will be shut down on September 9, 2024. The game will remain playable until then.
Tencent said it may retain some players’ personal data for a period of time after that date. “The reason we may retain your data after Synced ends is to be able to fulfill our obligations to you and other parties,” it said.
“For example, if you choose to exercise your data subject rights (if applicable), such as the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you, we will be able to respond to your request. In addition, we may be legally required to retain some information about your Synced transactions for a certain period of time.”
Then: “We’re grateful for all the love and support we’ve received for Synced, and we hope you enjoy our other modern and existing titles!
“We apologise for any inconvenience.”
Synced is the latest casualty in a live-service war that’s seen a growing number of participants in recent years. Even games that have cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, including Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League , have failed to find an audience. And yet, live-service shooters are coming bulky and swift. In recent weeks, Korean company Nexon released live-action loot shooter The First Descendant , which has been a huge hit after gaining 10 million players in seven days, and NetEase released survival game Once Human , which is off to a powerful start on Steam.
As for Synced, it hasn’t received an update since March, so the writing was very much on the wall. Level Infinite is set to release open-world tactical shooter Exoborne from Sharkmob and open-world MMO game Dune Awakening from Funcom.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
