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Closed game studio returns to un-live service its game with community servers before shutdown: ‘We don’t believe Deceive Inc. should quietly disappear’
Sweet Bandits, the developer of multiplayer spy shooter Deceive Inc., has returned after closing to rebuild the game’s online systems and enable community-hosted dedicated servers. The move could allow the game to remain playable indefinitely instead of disappearing when its existing live-service infrastructure becomes unsustainable.
Deceive Inc. launched to positive reviews and received seasonal updates for more than a year, but development stopped in 2024 when Sweet Bandits shut down. The planned overhaul will let players host and browse community servers while aiming to retain account progress, unlocks and statistics; it will also remove as many technical obstacles to modding as practical.
In short
- Deceive Inc. will gain community-hosted servers before its live-service backend ends.
- Sweet Bandits is rebuilding core online systems despite having closed.
- Player progress and modding support are intended to survive the transition.
Explained simply
Deceive Inc. is a multiplayer spy-themed shooter game developed by Sweet Bandits. The game launched to positive reviews and received regular seasonal updates for more than a year before the studio shut down in 2024, halting development.
When online multiplayer games lose their developer support, the company-operated servers that maintain the game typically shut down as well. This makes the game unplayable and causes it to effectively disappear, even though people may own copies. This problem has affected numerous online games over the years.