Closed game studio returns to un-live service its game with community servers before shutdown: 'We don't believe Deceive Inc. should quietly disappear'

In a rare reversal of live service demise, a beloved but "dead" live service FPS will not shut down, but instead receive custom server support that ensures it'll be playable forever. Long live Deceive Inc.

The story of Deceive Inc. played out like countless other live service games. The PvP Hitman-like shooter launched to good reviews, was beloved by a modest community (including yours truly), and received substantial seasonal updates for over a year. Then in 2024, the updates suddenly ceased and its developer, Sweet Bandits, closed its doors.

"After a long and difficult road of trying to get Deceive Inc. in a state where it could thrive, we have reached the breaking point for the studio," Sweet Bandits wrote in a December 2024 Steam update.

At the time, Sweet Bandits said it was "exploring options" for maintaining the game long term, but noted that the path would be "charted by our partners at Tripwire Interactive." Servers remained online, but for how long was anybody's guess.

That was a year and a half ago, which is why I was surprised to find a fresh Deceive Inc. update on my Steam home page dated July 16.

"Although Sweet Bandits had to close their doors, we don't believe Deceive Inc. should quietly disappear because the services behind it aren’t sustainable forever," the unsigned post reads. "We're actively rebuilding Deceive Inc.’s backend to be sustainable indefinitely and support community-hosted dedicated servers.

"When this work is complete, you'll be able to host your own servers using a dedicated server application, browse community servers directly from within the game, and join community-hosted matches just as you do today."

Once upon a time, most multiplayer games were built with a flexible server infrastructure that made custom lobbies a natural fit, but today's standard practice of dedicated server stacks and integrated matchmaking means redoing a lot of backend work. The effort is extensive, but worth it.

"Replacing the backend for a live multiplayer game means rebuilding much of the technology that players never normally see. This touches nearly every part of how players find matches, join servers, manage progression, unlock content, and more," the post reads. "Our goal is that when everything is finished, all of your account progress, unlocks, and stats are maintained—even though much of what's happening behind the scenes has changed."

The post shares screenshots of the rudimentary custom server tools coming in the update, and also sets expectations accordingly. "Right now, our priority is completing this migration successfully. Because of that, we have very little room to incorporate extra feedback or requests while this work is underway."

The cherry on top? The new version of Deceive Inc. will also remove "as many technical barriers to modding as we reasonably can," which could open the door to long-term fan updates down the road.

It's a feel-good development for a brilliant game. Deceive Inc. was never going to rake in millions of players—it's too strange for the mainstream, yet too skillful and complex to qualify as "frienslop"—so this is the best case scenario.

"This work is ultimately about one thing: making sure the future of Deceive Inc. is in the hands of the community that continues to play it," the post concludes.