The free-to-play game market is both saturated and varied. What will come to mind for many is Epic Games’ juggernaut battle royale game, Fortnite. But there are others that fulfil certain niche genres. From titles such as Genshin Impact, that capture the feeling of Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild in a cutesy anime style. All the way to Destiny 2 from Bungie cornered the “looter shooter” market, with millions calling it their home over the years. But in 2018, developer Phoenix Labs opened its doors to the beta for its free-to-play Monster Hunter competitor “Dauntless.”
Dauntless was a very interesting concept back when it originally launched. Take the formula of the wildly popular series from Capcom, streamline many of its systems, add an easy to digest art style and throw in a standard cosmetic focused monetization system for good measure. Dauntless aimed to be a more accessible, more casual version of the legendary Monster Hunter franchise, which gains its next entry in just a few short weeks with Monster Hunter Wilds.
Dauntless may seem obscure to most, but for years the game thrived. The game acquired over 15 million players after leaving its open beta in 2019. Keeping its player base engaged with cool ideas like “Escalation,” which allowed players to run a gauntlet of many different behemoths to slay in cooperative play. Dauntless’ weapon prestige system let players go the extra mile to improving weapons they held dear.
From its open beta in 2018, all the way to 2023, Dauntless was a rising star enjoying consistent positive feedback from its community, until things started to go awry. In 2024 there was an eerie silence from Phoenix Labs leading up to the launch of their next big update titled “Awakening” on December 5, 2024. While the update boasted a cool new behemoth and island to explore (like many other updates). One of the more exciting features is that players would be allowed to equip two different weapons and swap on the fly to match the situation they are in — something competitors Monster Hunter Wilds is adding as well.
Not My Hunting Grounds
Dauntless was brought to Steam with the launch of this update, breaking free of its Epic Games prison. Steam’s community systems help paint a clearer picture of the update’s reception. Awakening has been met with overwhelmingly negative reviews and even similar review bombing on Xbox. This is not leaving out the fact that the current daily player count for Dauntless on Steam sits below a few hundred according to SteamDB, although that doesn’t necessarily reflect the full active player base across Xbox, PlayStation, and the Epic Games Store on PC. Either way, at the heart of this backlash and undeniable player exodus lies a very ugly truth.
Awakening removed a lot of what made Dauntless the quality alternative to Monster Hunter it once was. Many build crafting options were removed. Such as the lanterns that players could use for their unique abilities that synergized with certain playstyles. Phoenix Labs also removed the aforementioned prestige system for weapons (alongside a lot of the available weapons players could earn in game).
One beloved feature that players enjoyed for many years, the “Cell Fusion system” was also removed. This system allowed excess Cells (which functioned like gems in other MMOs) to be fused together to get higher rarity versions that greatly affected different builds.
But one of the most baffling decisions in this update was the fact the studio removed 5 different islands from the game, inexplicably so. As a result, a lot of visual variety in locales found themselves abandoned on the cutting room floor. If removing many locations, weapons, and crucial aspects of game did not cut deep enough. They salted the wound with a full reset of every player’s progress in Dauntless.
Hey Dauntless, Where’s My Stuff?
While every player’s cosmetic purchases were carried over in the Awakening update. Only a select few items were kept by players when they logged back in. Such as exotic weaponry (that put skilled players to the test to craft) and select resources from behemoths.
The idea of starting over in an online game can sound good to veteran players, it could be a nostalgic walk down memory lane for some. However, Dauntless does not feature multiple character options, and the reset was forced onto every player, without serious discussion, costing everyone hundreds of hours of progress. This is no doubt the root cause of the negative reception for Awakening.
When reading through the reviews on Steam, the top review is from a player who put over 500 hours into the game on the Nintendo Switch before it was available on Steam. They lamented the loss of their weapons, armor sets, lanterns and high rarity cells. It did not end there though, as they were happy to invest money into the game through the battle passes but are now turned off by how weapons are paywalled in the microtransaction store.
This is also a major point of contention for the community. For years, Dauntless relied on cosmetics and battle passes to keep the studio afloat. But in Awakening, any unique weapon a player wants to acquire now must be bought with weapon tokens. These weapon tokens can only be earned through weekly bounties in the game or purchased with money. Creating a feeling of missing out on a weapon that might not rotate back into the shop in adequate time.
One final thing that is worth noting is how the leveling system for weapons has been severely slowed down. Before Awakening, players could level weapons up through traditional gameplay methods. While this is still true, after a certain point, the experience required to fully level up a weapon can only be earned at a reasonable rate via a new resource called Aetherite. Aetherite is similar to systems found in “gatcha” games, which involves heavy grinding or gambling real money. Three tiers of this Aetherite resource exists, and they can be be spent on a selected weapon to level it up quicker. Creating an endgame levelling system focused on grinding out rare items or buying them up reduces the value of actually engaging in the core gameplay loop of actually slaying monsters.
Dauntless is suffering from many self-inflicted wounds right now — making short sighted decisions that the company never would have in the past. Leaving one big question with multiple answers — what happened to Phoenix Labs that lead them to this point?
It’ll take a miracle for Phoenix Labs to rise from these ashes
Phoenix Labs after 2020 was originally owned by a company called Garena Games. This partnership at the time did not affect their operations, allowing Phoenix Labs to still develop Dauntless and release Fae Farm in 2023. However, a previous publishing deal with Epic Games saw the title precluded from Steam for years, potentially preventing it from hitting “virality” status, at least on PC. Either way, in May of last year, Phoenix Labs suffered over 100 layoffs, leaving the studio in a rougher shape before the Awakening update went live.
On top of this, in October of last year, a report from Game Developer revealed that Phoenix Labs was secretly bought by a company known as Forte Labs in 2023. This acquisition was meant to remain a secret amongst the employees, which may hint at potential shifts in visions behind the scenes. If we mix in both the layoffs, and this climate of secrecy around the acquisition — the picture being painted is not pretty.
With the ire of the community at large and significant drops in player numbers with a delay of their next big update “Umbral Reign”, Phoenix Labs is now faced with even more layoffs. In a post on the official Phoenix Labs LinkedIn profile, they announced that most of their studio was let go.
While players are still waiting for clarity for what the layoffs will mean for the future of their games, Phoenix Labs may be on death’s door and might not have the development staff to make things right. It would take a miracle for what remains of Phoenix Labs to turn things around and rise from the ashes, as it were. The damage done may simply be too great.
