Namco-Bandai’s newest free-to-play revival of Ridge Racer, dubbed ‘Driftopia’, will be shutting down soon after a year long beta test on Steam’s early access. Normally this was mean that a game shifts it’s beta tag and gets released as a final product, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Namco-Bandai have announced that they aim to take the entire project offline, with the servers and product page on Steam going dark on August 15th. This is likely following very poor reactions from fans, who have bombarded the game’s page with terrible reviews, citing constant crashes, wonky gameplay, and the worst of Pay to Win mechanics.
The company broke the news both on their official site and facebook page, and though the former was somewhat ambiguous on the details, the former made the situation crystal clear:
“The spin-off and first free-to-play game of the RIDGE RACER series has been made available in September 2013 with an early access on PC Steam. We thank all the players who joined the Open Beta for their participation, support and dedication. Your feedbacks will be invested in our existing and upcoming projects to deliver you thrilling and exiting experiences. From June 19th, all in game purchases will be disabled. Previously purchased content will remain available in-game until August 15th. By August 15th, servers will be turned off and the game will no longer be available.”
Here’s hoping that Namco-Bandai have learned from their mistakes with Driftopia, and that in the future, the developer manages to produce a title more palatable to longtime fans.