It’s surprising to think that Steel Hunters originated from Wargaming, as the service game giant made several missteps here.
In reality, Steel Hunters had numerous positives in its favor. To start, the mech shooter boasts an impressive visual appeal. It’s also free, developed by Wargaming, and theoretically benefits from a substantial budget. Moreover, the potential of mech games to appeal to a specific audience is vividly demonstrated by Mecha Break (though not without its controversies).
Nonetheless, Steel Hunters turned out to be a significant failure. The PvPvE shooter was launched in Early Access in April 2025, attracting only around 4,000 concurrent players at that time, received mixed reviews on Steam, and is now experiencing the repercussions: Wargaming is discontinuing the game prior to the conclusion of the Early Access phase. By October 2025, it will be officially over.
During this so-called sunsetting phase, players can access all mechs and content for free, allowing approximately 90 days to try everything, but the shutdown will follow. It’s utterly strange that a game from Wargaming, of all companies, would stumble like this. It’s a valid reason to examine the issues at play more closely.
What went awry with Steel Hunters?
The closure of Steel Hunters inevitably impacts the remaining fans as well as the developers involved. This highlights the importance of our community reflecting on the missteps to learn moving forward. Indeed, it seems that Wargaming encountered a roadblock with Steel Hunters, an issue the World of Tanks group typically navigates more adeptly.
Issue number 1: The marketing
Steel Hunters was unveiled at the Game Awards 2024 and, as per the studio, took three years to develop. Yet, despite various alpha and beta phases, players were not allowed to share their experiences. In retrospect, this turned out to be detrimental, as many YouTubers pointed out that Steel Hunters functioned substantially better during beta testing than at the actual Early Access launch.
Wargaming had a chance to build buzz leading up to the launch and spark excitement among players. However, while there can be downsides to overly prolonged pre-release marketing, Wargaming is known for adeptly promoting its products. Steel Hunters stayed largely off the radar, meaning few people were aware of the game’s actual launch.
Issue number 2: The launch state
Steel Hunters had a rocky start at launch. Here again, beta testers noted that, ironically, the game operated much more smoothly pre-launch, but in Early Access, the frame rate consistently dropped—regardless of a player’s computer specs. There were crashes, stuttering, server issues, and more.
This led to a fall in Steam ratings, with only 57 percent of reviews being positive. Not exactly favorable marketing for a game that was in dire need of excitement.
Issue number 3: The gameplay longevity
Upon its release, Steel Hunters came with a limited number of maps, a rather simple progression system, and three mechs that had been playable during beta were removed. Consequently, there was very little to engage with, as the initial post-launch announcements mainly centered around reintroducing the removed mechs into the game.
Thus, there was only one reason to engage with Steel Hunters: the gameplay itself. While it was undoubtedly the game’s strongest aspect, overwhelming performance issues ruined too many matches.
While we can’t see behind the curtain, all signs suggest that Wargaming must have redirected resources away from the project at some point during its development. There was nearly a two-year gap between the early beta testing phases and the launch, and insiders claimed that almost no new content was added in that entire duration.
Steel Hunters truly had the potential to be an outstanding mech shooter for an enthusiastic community (shoutout to the Titanfall fans), but it seems that the game never received the attention or the polish it required to endure the Early Access launch successfully. It’s a real disappointment.
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