Thick as Thieves studio does what triple-A won't: keep its game playable

Poor Thick as Thieves. When it was revealed over two years ago it had some promise, or at the very least an interesting mechanical premise in that it was a multiplayer immersive sim where everyone would be competing for the same loot. This got downgraded earlier this year ahead of its launch to just solo or co-op play , a real shame but hey ho, how many co-op imsims are there anyway? Sadly, the game has clearly not done well, as a number of layoffs have taken place at developer OtherSide Entertainment following its launch. But at the very least, what's left of the studio has some positive news: it won't become unplayable. "Working in the gaming industry is at times delightful and at other times heartbreaking. As many of you know, OtherSide Entertainment has lost most of its beloved members and only a very small team remains. This means there will be no further content updates for Thick as Thieves," a blog post explains. "To be frank, this is not the outcome that any of us want, but we’re facing the reality that ongoing development of extra content, modes and systems is not a viable path." The post goes on to note that Otherside are working with their publisher Megabit to make sure the game stays playable, with a small team working on an update that moves away from the currently cloud-based servers. "This mainly involves putting together a new version of the game that uses Peer to Peer servers for co-op play. The gameplay and flow of your experience will remain virtually identical, but will not need the use of dedicated servers in the cloud. This will allow you to continue playing with your friends when you desire and importantly, solo play will be completely unaffected." Once this work has been done, any lingering issues like bugs and other problems that occur will be Megabit's responsibility. As the blog post says itself, the situation is bittersweet, but in an era where major online games shut down at the drop of a hat without so much as an option for player-run servers, resulting in completely unplayable games, this is a welcome surprise. Plus, the game's only a fiver, so you've really not got much to lose here if you did want to pick it up.