When Blizzard acquired Spellbreak developer Proletariat back in 2022, intending them to support World of Warcraft development, the battle royale game got a shutdown date. Now, Spellbreak devs have made a standalone, free version that lets you run your own servers and explore the game. And there is an active community.
The Proletariat devs who created this version of the game, hosted here, thanked those who supported the game when it was live, and outlined their reasons for sharing.
“Like many of you, we were sad to see the development of Spellbreak come to a close. In order to help memorialize Spellbreak and allow players to continue to enjoy the Hollow Lands, we created a standalone version where players can host their own servers, play with their friends, and explore the game-space at their own pace.”
This version has been quietly available for a while now. You can download it, play your favorite classes, combine spells, and battle across the lands. Of course, you’ll need to host or find servers, and the team over at Aftermath shared details on a Discord server that has thousands of active users where people are hosting daily games, setting up events, and supporting one another. Members of the server, Elemental Fracture, even created their own easier to use launcher.
Spellbreak - Community Version is only giving fans of the original release a way to enjoy the game once again, but also notching a win for game preservation. As the Aftermath piece mentions, “87 percent of games released before 2010 are unplayable, according to the Video Game History Foundation, and the proliferation of online multiplayer games in the years since means that number is likely to rise”.
