Sun sets on Pokémon-inspired Moonrise as players switch off

Moonrise, the Pokémon-inspired tactical game from State of Decay developer Undead Labs, will not be moving forward with a commercial release, the developer announced in a blog post on the studio's website.

As Polygon previously reported, the game hit Steam Early Access back in May after a closed beta. As Jeff Strain, founder of Undead Labs, detailed in his post, "What we've found is that while some people really love Moonrise, there were unfortunately many more people who played the game and then moved on after a few days." After weighing the financial burden of supporting servers for the declining online game, which was to become free-to-play upon launch, the decision was made by the independent studio to cancel the planned full release.

The game's servers will be shut down midnight on Dec. 31. In the meantime, however, "since we won't have to worry about whether the game is profitable, we can just have some fun and open the floodgates," Strain writes. Accompanying the cancellation news, Moonrise received an update featuring new creatures and areas, as well as new rewards in its Arena Mode. Current players will also receive a free expansion pack in this most recent patch.

In its Early Access phase, players were offered one of two different bundles, at $15 and $20 price points, to experience the pre-release model. These packages included various downloadable content, such as skins and in-game funds. An iOS version was also released in a selection of countries, such as Canada and Australia.

While current owners of these versions can still access their games, they are no longer available for purchase.