Splash Damage’s Dirty Bomb was an attempt to recapture the glory of titles like Brink and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. It mixed class-based multiplayer with free-to-play mechanics and was relatively popular…in 2015. In the years since the game basically faded into obscurity and had a dwindling player base on Steam.
With the game leaving beta this past August, though, one could have been forgiven in assuming developer Splash Damage would continue to support Dirty Bomb. As it turns out, development on the game is completely finished. In a post on the official website, Splash Damage revealed that the title hasn’t been making enough money to continue live development at this time.
“After regaining publishing rights for DB nearly two years ago, we staffed up a load of developers and tried our best to deliver a Dirty Bomb experience that would be feature-rich with tons of new content, while maintaining its great gameplay feel & balance,” reads the blog post. “Unfortunately, despite all the added time and resources, there were some challenges we couldn’t overcome, and we were not able to make DB the success that we hoped it could be. The bottom line is that we can’t financially justify continuing to work on the game we love.”
While development is ending, the servers for Dirty Bomb will remain active “as long as there is a meaning number of players using them.” In a concession to fans that have spent money on the “All Merc Pack” DLC, Splash Damage will be refunding the amount to applicable accounts. If you buy the DLC before January 31, 2019, the funds will be returned to your Steam account and you will retain access to all of the game’s available mercs.
Source: Destructoid Splash Damage ends development on Dirty Bomb