Free-to-play title, Dauntless, is being review bombed on the PC distribution platform Steam after releasing the “Awakening” update which overhauled the game while wiping players’ progress. I reviewed the game only a few days back and said it was a good game at its core despite woeful performance issues, but this didn’t take into account the hardcore Dauntless players who had spent hundreds of hours playing the game. I wasn’t even 100 words into writing this article when during my research phase, I unearthed a lot of troubling information as to what happened to the Dauntless game, developer Phoenix Labs, and the original team behind this game. Let’s go back to the beginning.
The story of Dauntless and the foundation of Phoenix Labs is a wholesome one. Originally made up of ex-Riot staff, the concept originated on a cold and stormy day in the Dominican Republic in 2013. A group of friends decided it was too cold to swim, and spent the day playing Monster Hunter on the 3DS. The team complained that they were surprised a Western studio hadn’t tackled the genre, and also made the move to PC as the C-stick on the 3DS hurt their thumbs. 9 Months later, Phoenix Studios was formed in an office so small that staff had to shuffle seats aside to use the bathroom. The game was developed by gamers for gamers, and the team gave the project their all and faced serious burnout. (Source: Jessie Leigh Gagnon, Linkedin) Dauntless launched in 2019 and while it was light on content, was praised for being a great take on the genre, and growing a faithful following of slayers.
In January 2020, the future of Dauntless was looking bright, with Sea announcing Garena would acquire 100% of Phoenix Labs in a move that would still see Phoenix retain creative control, while bolstering development capabilities (Source: Business Wire). Jesse Houston, CEO and co-founder of Phoenix Labs, said in a press release on Business Wire, “Our partners at Garena have been our most steadfast supporters since the early days of Phoenix Labs, and we are excited to join forces with a global games leader. With this next step, we’re able to ensure that we can provide the best possible experience for Dauntless players around the world. We’re extremely excited about what the future holds for Phoenix Labs, as we continue to support our ever-growing Dauntless community and explore future games.” This sentiment was echoed by Sea Group CEO Forest Li “Over the last few years, we have watched Phoenix Labs mature into one of the best development teams in the business and launch a hugely exciting title in Dauntless. We also know that they share our mission of making great games, creating the best teams, and putting players first. Our skills sets are highly complementary, and we see many exciting opportunities ahead that our teams can explore together.”
This marriage wasn’t meant to last, and here’s where things get interesting.
Under a shroud of secrecy, Garena relinquished control over Phoenix Labs which was then acquired sometime in early 2023 by NFT and Blockchain company Forte, just before the release of cozy hit Fae Farm. This news was broken via a LinkedIn post by Kris Morness, almost a year after the event. The makings of this deal can be theorised to be linked back to 2022, when Forte acquired N3TWORK, and appointed N3TWORK founder Neil Young to helm Forte’s Games Industry business unit. (Source: Business Wire) Things started to rapidly fall apart here. Before the acquisition, it was announced that Phoenix Labs had managed to go back to being independent by buying back ownership of the company, which contradicts a bit of the timeline here, but suggests they didn’t remain independent for long, and regaining independence may have been orchestrated in order to pave way for Forte to make a move. In May 2023 a round of layoffs impacted the studio, and in September 2023, Phoenix Labs CEO and co-founder Jesse Houston and COO Jeanne-Marie Owens stood down from their roles within the company. (Source: GameIndustry.biz)
Things went quiet, with rumours suggesting all projects would be shuttered, Dauntless would be placed in caretaker mode, and Fae Farm would only have DLC worked on. Then, surprisingly, Awakening was announced and pitched as a massive overhaul of the game. While there were significant changes made, many seemed to gut content and progression, hiding a lot of things behind a paywall. At the time of writing, the game’s debut on Steam has over 1000 reviews with 85% not recommending the game, sitting it in the overwhelmingly negative category. Players aired their frustrations in essentially being reset and losing hundreds of hours of grinding for specific weapons, only for them to be axed (pun intended) in favour of transmog sets and loot boxes. Phoenix Labs responded in a letter to the community, acknowledging the issues and frustrations but ultimately admitting they won’t change it by saying “We want to acknowledge this frustration, and we hope that the speed with which veteran players will be able to move through these quests will ease some of this concern.”
One of Dauntless’ founders, Jessie Leigh Gagnon took to LinkedIn to share the story of how Dauntless was created, and how far it has fallen by concluding her post by saying “Dauntless today is no longer Free to Slay. They’ve gutted the core gameplay and crafting mechanics. The essence of the Slayers (who I named just over ten years ago), has been, in fact, slayed to ribbons. We never would have made decisions that are so blatantly not player focused. I have the privilege of working in academia now, where I can be open and honest about my opinions on other games – and this is the time for me to speak up and say DO BETTER WITH DAUNTLESS. Please, if not for us creators, FOR THE PLAYERS.”
Time will tell if Phoenix Labs can rise from the ashes of this ill-fated update, but as it seems from both the original team and the current player base, Dauntless Awakening is a nightmare the game can only hope to wake from.
I have reached out to Phoenix Labs and members of the original dev team and will update this article should I get a response.
