The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2018-2024
Tencent's flagship shooter took 5 years and 100 people to build, and lasted just over 1
NExT billed Rebirth Edge as its answer to AAA shooters, but post-launch revenue couldn't cover its costs, and half the team had left before the shutdown.
Tencent · 2024-09-09
What happened
Tencent's NExT Studios spent roughly five years and a team of about 100 people developing Rebirth Edge, a PvE/PvP shooter combining roguelite 'chip control' mechanics, positioning it internally as a flagship '2A'-tier title meant to prove the studio could compete with larger-scale shooter production.
The game launched on September 8, 2023, but struggled to build the player base and revenue needed to sustain its ongoing live-service operating costs. Around the following Spring Festival, roughly half the development team departed the project.
Tencent shut down Rebirth Edge on September 9, 2024, just over a year after launch — ending a project that had consumed five years of development before its live service could even reach its second anniversary.
Why it happened
- The studio committed five years and a 100-person team to a new IP without a smaller-scale test of the core mechanics' commercial appeal first.
- Revenue projections for the live-service model didn't anticipate how quickly ongoing costs would outpace post-launch player retention.
- Losing half the development team mid-operation signaled the project's internal support had already collapsed before the public shutdown.
- Nobody scaled back operating costs or team size early enough to extend the game's runway once revenue signals turned negative.
The lesson
A multi-year development bet on live-service revenue needs a shorter runway to prove itself than the years spent building it.
Aftermath
Rebirth Edge's shutdown became a widely discussed example in Chinese gaming media of the risk in committing years of AAA-scale development to an unproven new IP in the live-service shooter genre.
Sources
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