October is meant to be a spooky month, but it’s been positively terrifying for free-to-play MMO studios – the latest victim is Trion Worlds, the team behind decent enough fantasy RPG Rift and the recently rebooted shoot n’ looter Defiance 2050, among others. According to reports from Gamasutra and Polygon, the studio has been bought out by German mobile publisher Gamigo, and the layoffs are massive, hitting the majority of Trion’s 200+ employees. A skeleton crew of around 25 are all that’s left to maintain the studio’s stable of games.

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I consider Defiance one of the more underrated online shooters of its time. A tie-in with the Syfy (ugh) channel’s post-apocalyptic space-western TV series, it offered open-world looting and shooting roughly on par with Borderlands, but with a greater focus on cooperative multiplayer and (in my humble opinion) better guns. Today, its much-touted relaunch – Defiance 2050 – was released as free-to-play, although those expecting a massive overhaul for the game might be disappointed.

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Despite being tied into TV show of questionable quality, MMO shooter Defiance wasn’t half bad, offering similar kicks to Borderlands, but with with more solid combat and guns that feel designed by human hands instead of being cobbled together mostly at random. It’s relaunching this July 10th (with an open beta scheduled for June 22nd-25th) under name Defiance 2050. Redesigned as free-to-play from the ground up, and leveraging a somewhat beefier engine that’s less prone to cropping scenery, enemies and players out of existence.

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