Streamline

Shutdown

On April 13, 2018, Proletariat announced that the game would be shutting down within two weeks. The game remained operational for a bit longer than that, but was eventually delisted from Steam on May 22, 2018.

We’ve made the difficult decision to retire Streamline.

The game was a radical experiment. We saw the amazing communities springing up all over Twitch and wondered why no developer had made a game specifically for them. The goal of Streamline and Streamote was to make the ultimate live stream game. That meant deep integration into Twitch to make it easy for broadcasters and viewers to play together, game modes that were exciting to watch, and interactivity for viewers to be part of the game. I think we accomplished all of those things. To hit that level of innovation, our small team needed to pull focus from other areas of the game. If we could do it all over again, I think we would put more focus into team multiplayer game modes, a more relatable theme, better communication of the narrative, and deeper combat.

We also fell short on distribution. Our strategy was to get the broadcaster community excited about a game they could play with their viewers and guide that momentum toward a successful full release. In reality, the audience that would play this sort of experience is small, and while broadcasters did love the game, it was not something they could play every single stream. Our messaging around the game made the industry at large think of the game as a streaming only experience, which was a tough sell on Steam. While we love the community that has grown around Streamline, it is simply not big enough to sustain the game.

Thank you to all the early access players and everyone who played, streamed, and joined us for our community play days—you all made this an incredible experience. Proletariat has another innovative, multiplayer game in the works, and we’re looking forward to sharing that with you very soon.

– Seth