Wargaming said it will shut down Steel Hunters, its free-to-play mech extraction shooter, on 8 October, barely six months after the title entered early access on Steam. The company told players that "continuing development is not sustainable," citing low engagement for the decision. Steel Hunters premiered on 2 April and never gained traction, reaching a peak of 4,479 concurrent users according to SteamDB and falling below 100 in recent days. During a 90-day wind-down period, Wargaming will unlock all playable “Hunters,” enable custom matches and stage a farewell tournament. The rapid termination underscores the mounting risk in the live-service model, where only a handful of blockbusters dominate player attention. Wargaming, best known for its long-running World of Tanks franchise, said it will try to place affected staff in other roles across its 15 studios.