Katarzyna Petru
It was meant to be the big return of RTS games, the spiritual successor to the iconic StarCraft, but it turned out to be… exceptionally poor. Stormgate, the latest creation from Frost Giant studio, has faced a spectacular flop since its launch, and mass layoffs are already looming on the horizon.
From Dreams to Harsh Reality
Just a few months ago, Frost Giant promised a revolution in the genre. Stormgate was set to combine classic RTS mechanics with a modern approach to gameplay and free-to-play. The launch of the campaign in August 2025 was meant to be a turning point - the beginning of the game's expansion beyond its niche.
The problem is that players... just haven’t shown up.
SteamDB data is unforgiving
According to statistics from SteamDB, only 200–250 people play Stormgate daily at peak activity. For a free game with a budget exceeding 40 million dollars – this is a real disaster. In comparison, significantly smaller indie RTS games can attract several times more players without a marketing campaign and million-dollar investments.
Frost Giant sounds the alarm
At the gamescom 2025 trade fair, the studio's president, Tim Morten, openly admitted that the project is not generating the expected revenue. If the situation does not improve in the coming months, “major layoffs” and drastic cost cuts will be necessary.
These words sound like a death sentence for a significant part of the team, which has believed in the revival of RTS games for years. Stormgate was supposed to be the title that would restore glory to the genre – instead, it may become an example of one of the most expensive flops in recent years.
Do RTS games still have a future?
The Stormgate flop raises uncomfortable questions: is there still a place for high-budget RTS games in today's industry? Or is the genre, which shone in the 90s and early 2000s, now only suited for niche projects aimed at a small group of enthusiasts?
One thing is certain – 40 million dollars and years of work could end up in the dustbin of history, and Frost Giant may find itself in the same place where dozens of other studios dreaming of a return to the golden age of RTS games have stalled.
