Remember Dauntless? It’s the monster-hunting RPG that was inspired by, well, Monster Hunter. Released for early access in 2018 with a full launch in 2019, the game is officially shutting down on May 29, 2025. Developer Phoenix Labs announced the game’s closure just weeks after laying off the majority of its staff.
Dauntless was one of the first titles to bring the monster-hunting experience to PC before Capcom’s franchise made the switch with MH World. It was really successful at launch, but as you’d expect from the live service genre, things went terribly wrong.
Dauntless was the best Monster Hunter-like experience
Dauntless made a strong first impression when it entered early access in 2018. With gameplay inspired by Monster Hunter and a bigger focus on co-op, it was a really fun time with friends. We didn’t have to take it super seriously or go all hardcore with it, and the developers were doing good work. The best part was that it was a PC-friendly alternative to Capcom’s franchise.
Dauntless went like this:
Released as a kinda messy but fun and interesting free MonHun-like with promising potential.
Get bought by a cryptocurrency group and had the game get ruined by the higher ups completely remaking the game in the most terrible way pic.twitter.com/zHZGi2PGy3
— JoshFreak (Phoebe’s Husband) (@FreakyBro2003) February 24, 2025
The game was going strong when it got its full launch in 2019 and the devs at the time even reported that 6 million players had played the game. But Capcom was not about to let it take any more territory so then there were the launches of Monster Hunter World in 2018 and MHW: Iceborne in 2020 on PC. And this was where it first started to falter.
Despite its struggles, Dauntless had moments of success. It was the first game to launch with full cross-play between PC, PlayStation, and Xbox which is definitely an achievement in accessibility. The game sure had a lot of us hooked at the time, the behemoth-themed weapons and armor were so cool and actually got us grinding and having fun.
But alas, such is the live service formula that all good things must come to an end. Phoenix Labs has confirmed on social media that Dauntless will receive no further updates or content before its shutdown. And on May 29 at 11:45 PM PST, the game will become completely unplayable, with its servers shutting down and its removal from all platforms.
It was a slow and steady downfall, and now Capcom has taken over
This fate for Dauntless has been coming for many years now. In 2023, Phoenix Labs was acquired by Forte, a blockchain-focused company, in a deal that remained largely under the radar until the following year. Then there were rumors that there would be some blockchain integration into the game. Luckily, that didn’t happen. But it should’ve been the least of our worries.
This acquisition was followed by financial struggles and layoffs in May 2024. The studio canceled several in-development projects, focusing only on Dauntless and Fae Farm. But it was too little too late by then. The game finally came to Steam in December 2024 but that brought a number of new bugs as people lost progress and complained about the microtransactions.
Since the game is a live service title, its shutdown means that it will be completely unplayable after May 29. What’s crazy is that the game heavily relied on microtransactions in its later years. So what about all the players who spent on the game? Phoenix Labs has yet to address any community concerns following the announcement.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
