Cooled: Molten Games Shuts Down, Unreal 4 powered Blunderbuss Canned

Michael Dunaway
By Michael Dunaway, News Editor Posted:
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Late last month, newly founded development studio Molten Games unexpectedly shutdown, leaving close to 60 employees without a job and an unannounced Free-to-Play title on the cutting room floor.

Originally founded in the middle of 2013, Molten Games was the amalgamation of several developers from key studios including Blizzard, SOE and Relic Entertainment. Backed by a multi-million dollar investment from NCSoft and the promise of a hands off publishing approach, the studio seemed destined for greatness.

So what happened? A requiem of Molten Games posted by one of its former developers, the studio unexpectedly lost all of its funding, prompting an immediate shutdown. As to why the studio lost its funding, that much is unclear. Speaking in regards to Molten Games accomplishments, the unnamed dev proclaimed Molten "to be a profound success".

The developer went on to divulge a bit more concerning Molten Games secret project "Blunderbuss" including revealing several never before seen videos of the game. Blunderbuss apparently utilized the brand new Unreal 4 engine and was set in a fantasy steampunk world. The featured gameplay appeared PvP in nature and showcased a few of Blunderbuss's characters including a steam powered siege tank and catapult.

While no official statement has been given regarding the future of the Blunderbuss IP, given the dissolution of Molten Games and the lack of funding, it's safe to assume the title has been shelved for the foreseeable future.

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About the Author

Michael Dunaway
Michael Dunaway, News Editor

Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play MMO title since 2009.

More Stories by Michael Dunaway

Discussion (15)

rakanms 10 years ago
NICE GAME

Someone how loved City of Heroes 10 years ago
NCsoft is well known as game-killers.

And this game is another example

SCyberTaz 10 years ago
NC Soft probably Garriott'ed them and garroted their funding because the Asian market wouldn't be interested in playing err gold-farming. I'm sorry that another set of Dev's had to leave their building before noon, and really hope they didn't tie ownership of their Intellectual Property to the initial funding from that publisher. Where the money went or was it withdrawn, we'll never know, NC Soft loves their Non-Disclosure Agreements and if they did give them control of the IP, NC Soft will never release it. "MINE!"

Don Hawthorne 10 years ago
I really, really, really hope it was because NCSoft realized the CoH community did everything in their power towarn people off of anything they touch.
Nobody should trust NCSoft for ANYTHING.

Merkadis 10 years ago
This deal with molten is unclear they seemed like a good company-to-be and then boom funding gone how the f@ck can it be just – gone?! UFO stole it or what? p_p

Adrian87 10 years ago
From what i seen in the videos, game did not seem bad, but i don't think it looked that great either (i don't mean graphics. I got a bad pc anyway, bad graphics just means i can play it xD).
Character introduction, like most games do, is a mix of cinematic with gameplay. For example the Reckoner looks so amazing in the first cinematic part (stepping on a dude, grabbing another and throwing him away), but so basic aoe/cleave attacks in the gameplay. Catapult did not seem so great either, stay safe - spam attack.
What i really liked was the siege tank and only because of his "deploy wings" ability, to create cover for his troops.
Gonna repeat, game did not looked bad, but did not seem a gem either. I actually think i would prefer something like Panzar over this one (they seem alike).

kasaxhasunohana 10 years ago
Leave it to NCsoft to screw up a good thing..

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ZhaoYun 10 years ago
wow this game looks so great its so sad that Molten studios is "down" always sad when people lose their jobs especially in this times we living good luck to all those people who lost their jobs i hope they find new ones to feed their families

WTF?? 10 years ago
WTF... this game looks awesome... how dafuq is it possible that the studio unexpectedly lost all of its funding. This isn't even possible if you see the news on the website. And i quote 'NCSOFT has dropped a multimillion dollar Series A investment to aid in the start-up of Molten Games'

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BOOM! 10 years ago
Kinda sad. The game looking really good and look very promising. Kinda sucks they took down the Molten Studios.

Yepito 10 years ago
mounted


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