Is Hyper Scape Dead On Arrival?

Hyper Scape arrived on all platforms on August 11, after a semi-successful PC beta launch in July. The mega-company behind the game, Ubisoft, promised an interactive experience other Battle Royales could only dream of – but fell short.

The game is dying at an exponential rate, with matchmaking on console taking up to twenty minutes, and lobbies capping out at 13 players (out of a possible 60 competitors). How has a game owned by such a powerful entity like Ubisoft failed?

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Hyper Scape’s Release

“In this day and age, developers need to be truly innovative when releasing a Battle Royale” – that’s what GGRecon said about our first impressions of Hyper Scape – but it didn’t live up to expectations. A fancy “hub” lobby isn’t enough to save this sinking ship, and neither is the Twitch integration, which was seemingly used by next to nobody. Check out the numbers for yourself.

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Twitch Integration was meant to provide the viewer with a chance to change the game in progress, to the peril or pleasure of the player. These “in-game events” range from Low Gravity, to Infinite Ammo, and were designed to have a major impact on the match.

This, in Ubisoft’s mind, was engineered to make the game perfect for content creators to play on stream, and engage their audience, therefore creating more Hyper Scape players.

At the time of writing, the Hyper Scape Twitch stats are showing a paltry 356 viewers, compared to the similar game Apex Legends, which boasts… well – a LOT more.

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It seems the “cutting edge” Twitch extension, wasn’t enough to lure in viewership.

Is Hyper Scape A Copycat?

Another downfall of Hyper Scape, it has to be said, is the copycat nature of the weapons and abilities available in the game. It’s almost a meme how similar the guns are to the aforementioned BR Apex Legends. 

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It isn't just the design – the weapons act in almost exactly the same way, from damage numbers to clip sizes.

Another thing to touch on is the abilities themselves, or "Hacks", as Hyper Scape calls them. They too seem to take inspiration from Apex Legends (Reveal – Bloodhound scan etc.), and, weirdly enough, Riot Games' tactical shooter VALORANT.

Teleport is Omen all over, while the Wall is suspiciously similar to Sage's ability in the FPS.

Why Isn't Hyper Scape Crossplay?

That's the question on everybody's lips. The game can be played on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and Ubisoft did reveal that crossplay support is coming "at a later date", we just don't know when that may be. Surely, crossplay would be the saving grace of Hyper Scape, allowing streamers to play in mixed lobbies for further viewership potential (not to mention, actually fully lobbies…)?

Is Hyper Scape Dying?

The short answer is – yes. Big promises were made, and as of yet, Ubisoft have not delivered on any of them. When crossplay arrives, and if the Hyper Scape team can make some much-needed updates (and add new content) there is hope for the futuristic Battle Royale yet.

 

Images via Ubisoft