FBC: Firebreak is one of those games where, if you try to describe it, it just sounds like a bunch of corporate buzzwords strung together that should’ve stayed on the shareholder spreadsheet: a multiplayer first-person PvE shooter set in the Control universe. See?
In fairness, it wasn’t bogged down by the usual live-service cynicism, and it was Remedy’s first multiplayer outing, but it wasn’t the big hit the team was undoubtedly expecting, dropping to concurrent peak player counts as low as six within less than a year.
Chief executive officer Tero Virtala stepped down shortly after its launch, but the studio promised that it would still be “pushing a lot of improvements and changes” to try and win back players. Unfortunately, those efforts haven’t panned out, and FBC: Firebreak is finally being sunset.
FBC: Firebreak To Introduce Friend’s Pass, With Permanent Price Cut
As reported by The Verge, the next major update to the game — Open House — will be its last, adding a few new areas lifted from Control alongside “gameplay improvements and balance changes aimed at making combat clearer, smoother, and more flexible.” However, unlike Concord and Highguard, which similarly struggled to keep an active playerbase and were taken offline as a result, Remedy plans to keep the servers running.
Remedy will roll out patches if required, however.
“FBC: Firebreak will stay online and continue to be playable for years to come,” Remedy said in a Steam blog post. “We have done engineering work to ensure we can sustain the upkeep of the relay servers when the player volume is lower.”
And while support might be coming to an end, Remedy is making some broad changes to help keep the modest userbase afloat. The first of these is the Friend’s Pass, which — as with games like Split Fiction — will allow you to invite a friend to play alongside you at no extra charge. “They can matchmake with the bought version of the game, as long as the person who bought the game invites their friends to play,” Remedy explained. “This works across platforms.”
Remedy will also be permanently lowering the price of the game to $19.99, with a 20 percent discount on Steam until the end of March. “We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has played, supported, and shared feedback on FBC: Firebreak,” the team said. “As Remedy’s first multiplayer game and our first self-published title, it has been quite the journey for the studio and a valuable learning experience for the teams involved.”
- Released
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June 17, 2025
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence, Blood
