Ballistic was born around 8 years ago.
Aquiris was a young development studio and wanted to deliver an arcade arena shooter suited for all FPS lovers, as we were and continue to be.
We foresaw a real opportunity to deliver something different and worked hard to develop an experience unlike anything available at the time — remember, there were no names like Overwatch, Titanfall, or Rainbow Six Siege around.
Our game was meant to reach players who were looking for a pick-up and play shooter with simple gameplay that was intended to be social. To make sure that would happen, we chose the most disruptive and fittable platform available at the time: Facebook, who used to have a much bigger focus on games integrated in its core product.
Around a year later, for reasons both internal and external to Aquiris, we had to change our focus and take the game to a more hardcore platform. This proved to be the right decision at the time, and the move to Steam resulted in a much more complex gameplay. While revisiting the main mechanics, we had to question ourselves what could be improved to offer a better experience overall. The answer was to create a class-based FPS with a more sophisticated progression system.
Since we were leaving Facebook for Steam and changing much of our core gameplay, we decided a new brand was necessary. That is why in this process Ballistic became Ballistic Overkill, an identity more suited to its new focus and hardcore mechanics.
On Steam, we quickly reached a considerable number of consecutive players, in a way that was great and beyond our expectations. Unfortunately, supporting a game like this with frequent updates is no easy task, nor is it something cheap, especially for an independent studio like us. Even though we tried and availed multiple possibilities, we simply couldn't deliver a simple and efficient enough solution to offer the support you deserved and expected from us through 2019, and we apologize for that.
We knew we had to do something and couldn't leave the game at its current state. Something that didn't hurt even more your expectations and could reach ours.
We’ve decided to end our official support for Ballistic Overkill, but will keep the game alive for our engaged community. Starting January 31 2020, we’ll shut down our servers, Ballistic Protocols and online rankings. You'll still be able to play with your friends through the community servers, and the game will remain available on Steam.Beginning today, Ballistic Overkill will adopt a symbolic price: US$ 1,99 for the base game, and the same amount will be charged for each DLC available. If you purchased the game beginning November 1st, you can get a full refund for your money. Just request a refund via Steam and we’ll be sure to fulfill every one of them, regardless of the time you spent playing the game since then.
This was a tough decision to make. The toughest in the life of the game so far. We know some of you will be frustrated by this, but we are confident this is the best solution. Thanks for all the support you've shown us through the years. Even though we've reached "The End", it will always be an honour to have served with you in the field for all this time. We'll never forget our moments of fun together!
Aquiris Dev Team