Dauntless to Shut Down Following Phoenix Labs’ Major Layoffs

Phoenix Labs, the developer behind the free-to-play Monster Hunter-like RPG Dauntless, released an update on Steam, announcing that the game will shut down on May 29, 2025. There will be no more updates or new content, and after that date, players won’t be able to play the game.

This announcement came a month after the layoffs that affected the majority of the studio, an estimated 140 people, from last month. This was almost doomed with the Dauntless’ disastrous Steam launch — it was rated as overwhelmingly negative because the studio wiped players’ progress, removing hundreds of items and instead adopting a monetization policy that some now call “predatory.”