The latest game from the creators of *Heavy Rain* wasn’t another story-driven adventure, but a *League of Legends*-style MOBA. Now, just three months after its early access release, the game is being discontinued.
Bad news for fans of story-driven adventures in the style of Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human. That’s because the development studioQuantic Dream is apparently in trouble. The studio’s latest project, a League of Legends-style MOBA, was unexpectedly shut down just three months after its Early Access release; now aninternal restructuring
is set to follow.
Find out why the project failed and what consequences this could have for the announced story-driven adventure Star Wars: Eclipse,here.
New MOBA on the brink of cancellation after just three months
Spellcasters Chronicles came out of nowhere. When the game was announced in late October 2025, the community was initially excited to see what Quantic Dream had in store. After all, the French studio is known for its outstanding story-driven games. But that’s exactly what Spellcasters Chronicles wasn’t; the latest project from the creators of Detroit was a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) featuring3v3 battles and deck-building elements.
With the game, Quantic Dream aimed to break into a market that has been dominated for years by the top dogs, League of Legends and Dota 2.However, that didn’t pan out.& nbsp;As the studio announced just three months after the early access launch, Spellcasters Chronicles is set to be shut down on June 19. This means the game was online for a mere four months.
In a message posted on X, the team writes about the shutdown:
With this project, we wanted to explore new creative territories and create a bold multiplayer experience. […] However, in the current, exceptionally challenging market environment, the game was unable to reach the audience necessary to sustain its operation. Therefore, we have made the difficult decision to focus our efforts on other projects. As a result, the studio will undergo an internal restructuring.
– Quantic Dream
These lines already reveal the core problem thatSpellcasters Chroniclesstruggled with from the very beginning: The game was simplynot what the audience had expected from Quantic Dreamand failed to build a stable player base.& nbsp;According to SteamDBSpellcasters Chronicles had just 888 concurrent players at launch and never surpassed that figure again—far too few to financially justify further development.
What are the consequences for Quantic Dream?
Ever since the announcement of Spellcasters Chronicles, there have also been rumors that the Chinese publisher NetEase allegedly pressured Quantic Dream to develop a supposedly lucrative live-service game that strayed far from the studio’s actual strengths. NetEase had acquired Quantic Dream in 2022. However, neither the studio nor the publisher ever wanted to comment on these rumors.
The relationship between NetEase and Quantic Dream currently appears to be strained. Back in April, Insider-Gaming reported, based on employee statements, that NetEase was currently hesitant to continue investing in the studio because Star Wars Eclipse was still far from completion and thus no profits are expected anytime soon
The studio’s most recent statement claims that the development ofStar Wars: Eclipsewillnot be affectedby the cancellation of Spellcasters Chronicles and the resulting layoffsand is proceeding as planned. However, it is doubtful whether this is true.
According to information from Insider-Gaming, the studio recently attempted to cross-fund the development of Eclipse with revenue from Spellcasters Chronicles due to a lack of new funding from NetEase.
However, it appears these revenues never materialized to the extent hoped for. In fact, Spellcasters Chronicles could now even turn out to be a total loss for Quantic Dream. The studio has announced that it will issue refunds to all players who spent money on the game’s early access version.
So if Quantic Dream doesn’t find a new source of funding soon, the studio could run into financial trouble. And if NetEase doesn’t commit to new investments in Star Wars: Eclipse, there is also a risk that a Star Wars project—one that many fans have been eagerly awaiting for years—could be scrapped.
