Pioner is being shut down due to a lack of funds

The Russian MMO shooter Pioner, set in a post-apocalyptic setting, generated quite a buzz as early as the development stage. But when the studio GFAGames announced that the project would be available in Russia exclusively on the «Rostelecom Games» platform, while gamers in the rest of the world would get the release on Steam, the public somewhat cooled toward the interesting new title. Then came technical problems, typical for a debut by enthusiasts, salary delays at the company, layoffs, and now, at last, a disappointing finale — as the developers explain the situation, they simply lacked the money to support the online action game.

The game's results since its release last December are, frankly speaking, not impressive. To see this for yourself, it is enough to look at the Steam statistics, which demonstrate both a steady decline in the online player count and a growing number of negative reviews. Gamers have all but forgotten about updates and patches — the last more-or-less serious patch the game received was in the summer. GFAGames CEO Alexander Nikitin shared his thoughts on this event: «In recent months, we have been looking for ways to preserve both the game and the people who created it… It is a great pity that we will not be able to continue this work».

All attempts to obtain at least some investment were unsuccessful, and the bet on «Rostelecom Games», apparently, did not pay off. But the main target of criticism has been and remains the technical state of the product. The final letter ends with gratitude to everyone who purchased the shooter and ran streams in support of it. Just in case, we remind you that the free demo version of the action game can still be downloaded on Steam, although the servers for maintaining multiplayer sessions have already ceased operation.