'Games Deserve To Be Preserved'
Kotaku • • technology
Key Points:
- Blindfire, an online first-person shooter set in darkness, was released in October 2024 but failed to attract a large audience, leading developer Double Eleven to stop active development about a year ago.
- On May 7, Double Eleven rebranded the game as Blindfire: Lights Out, made it free to play across consoles and PC, and released a final update including new weapons, achievements, skins, and an accessibility feature called "Audio Aim Assist."
- The Audio Aim Assist was developed in response to feedback from blind and partially sighted players, providing audio cues to help orient and track enemies, fitting the game's dark combat theme.
- Double Eleven emphasized their commitment to preserving the game as a piece of art, refusing to let it disappear despite its commercial failure, and pledged to keep the servers running indefinitely without advertising or marketing.
- The studio expressed pride in their work and gratitude to the community, highlighting the rarity of such preservation efforts in the gaming industry where many games are quickly shut down and become unplayable.
