FragPunk PS5 PlayStation

In a situation you don't see very often, mainly for solidarity and decency reasons, Bad Guitar Studio (FragPunk) has publicly apologised to Mountaintop Studios (Spectre Divide) after mocking the imminent shutdown of its debut title.

Bad Guitar said its since deleted comment, which took the form of a Captain America meme (thanks, PSU), was "insensitive and unprofessional" and "does not reflect our studio’s values or respect for fellow industry peers".

Spectre Divide was released on February 25, 2025, and clearly failed to find an audience in the saturated live service/shooter market. Mountaintop Studios opted to close the game and the studio after just two weeks, refunding players who did buy microtransactions. Meanwhile, FragPunk was just indefinitely delayed on consoles, and that was just 24 hours before it was set to go live.

Obviously, you should never kick someone when they're down; doing so in public, when you work in the same, relatively small industry, seems quite ill-considered. It's worth noting that Mountaintop Studios was an independent team, developing Spectre Divide on its own dime. Bad Guitar Studio, meanwhile, is a subsidiary of Thunderful, which in turn is a subsidiary of NetEase Games, and thus may very well find itself on the chopping block someday.

What do you think of this strange situation? Let us know respectfully in the comments section below.

[source x.com]