// PC GAMER — GAMING
'Live-service is a red flag for us': Why one publisher is embracing an older kind of multiplayer hit: peer-to-peer, server browsers, and organic community
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Steam says I have over 50 hours in Deceive Inc, so when I say it's great, know that's not just an impression. If you like FPS but also enjoy prop hunt, Hitman, or hidden identity games like The Ship, Deceive Inc is worth a look.
It's a frustrating thing to watch good games disappear. We've seen it happen time and time and time again: studios spend years on a cool multiplayer thing, bank on it being popular enough to become a live-service hit, then toss the entire project into the trash when that doesn't happen.
That could have been the fate of Deceive Inc, a 2023 'PvP Hitman' shooter that has attracted a passionate, but small community. Developer Sweet Bandits supported the game with substantial updates and microtransactions for over a year, but unfortunately shut down in 2024, leaving fans to assume Deceive Inc would one day disappear, too. Then last month, the unexpected happened: an update on its Steam page announced that not only would Deceive Inc not be going offline, but work is underway on community server tools and mod support that will essentially give the game to the community, and keep it playable forever.
The update is not the work of Sweet Bandits, but an initiative of Deceive Inc's publisher, Tripwire Interactive. In an interview with PC Gamer, publishing director Bryan West explained why Tripwire—which also publishes the Chivalry games and makes the Killing Floor series—is going to such lengths to maintain a game that only a few people are playing.
"The core message is that Tripwire wants players to be able to enjoy our games for as long as they want to enjoy them. So we fight and claw to find a way to make that happen," West said.
"We don't want to leave our games in a broken state. It's a mandate from our leadership, and it's part of the reason why I'm happy to be with Tripwire."
Custom server tools and community browsers were once the norm for PC games, but in the age of matchmaking algorithms and expected cross-play functionality, multiplayer games are built around closed networking and dedicated servers. Undoing that process for Deceive Inc is not a small task, as West explains:
"It's several months of work for a very high-level engineer. It's not inconsequential, but in terms of the gains, I would say it's very important for Tripwire as a business that relies on its reputation with gamers. It's important for us to look at the long term and not the short term of how this is impacting our bottom line.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.