Amazon Games Studios’ Crucible has fared so poorly with players that the developers are taking it back into closed beta as of tomorrow. The free-to-play third-person shooter MOBA initially showed much promise in its Overwatch-style gameplay but was ultimately met with a lukewarm reception when it launched on PC last May.

Having already been forced to release without any promotional in-person events due to the COVID-19, Crucible has suffered from issues like poor balancing and a lack of interesting game modes, which severely hurt its player count right out of the gate. While the game still has its fans and positive aspects, it has struggled to connect with the larger gaming community, and now this seems to have prompted its developers at Amazon Game Studios to go back to the drawing board.

Earlier today, the developers of Crucible announced that they would be taking the game back into closed beta testing on their official website, citing fan feedback as their motivation for doing so. This means that fans will still be able to log on to Crucible with all of their in-game perks and weapons just like they could before, only now the developers will schedule one day a week to play through the game themselves and gather even more output from players in hopes of improving things. Shortly after the news broke, Bloomberg gaming journalist Jason Schreier weighed in on his Twitter page, which can be seen below:


Amazon Game Studios has much riding on Crucible’s success, as it is the developer's first major video game project aside from a planned MMO title based off of the Lord Of The Rings franchise. So far, its other noteworthy game, the MMORPG New World, has suffered from a highly publicized delay right after its initial release date was first revealed, and has been met with mixed reviews not unlike the ones that have seemingly plagued Crucible.

This recent development of Crucible returning to beta testing a good month after its release certainly isn't helping Amazon with its struggles to get off the ground in the world of game development. Hopefully, the extra time Crucible spends in beta will help to remedy its prevalent issues, just like how Final Fantasy XIV overcome its troubled reputation with the A Realm Reborn way back in 2013. For now though, only time will tell if the people behind Crucible can take players’ further feedback into account to mold their game into that breakout success that Amazon Games Studio has been hoping for.