Publisher and developer Automaton has announced that development of its 1000-player battle royale Mavericks: Proving Grounds has been canceled. The reason given for the cancelation was a lack of further funding.
Its other project, free-to-play shooter Deceit, remains safe, at least for a time, despite the company going into administration.
Mavericks Proving Grounds Canceled
“Paul Cooper and Paul Appleton were appointed joint administrators of Automaton Games Limited on 30th July 2019. They are managing the affairs, business and property of the company. The joint administrators act as agents of the company and act without personal liability. Paul Cooper and Paul Appleton are licensed to act as insolvency practitioners in UK by the ICAEW.”, the Automaton website reads.
“Please be advised that due to insufficient funding, the development of the Mavericks: Proving Grounds game has now ceased. The joint administrators are in the process of licensing the Deceit game so there will be no change in the live operation and provision of this game.”, it continues.
While Mavericks: Proving Grounds will no longer see the light of day, the efforts to license Deceit are bound to keep the free-to-play shooter running as per usual, at least for a while.
Released in 2017, Deceit puts six players in the same environment, splitting them into survivors and infected without marking them as such. While the survivors have to reach an escape hatch, the infected must take them out.
The title has managed to retain a small playerbase and developer Automaton was working on a map update for Deceit, according to the latest community update that came out in April. You can check it out on Steam.