The Quarry Online Multiplayer Delay Was Due to Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The Quarry developer Supermassive Games reveals the reason behind the recent delay of the narrative game’s online multiplayer mode.

The Quarry, Supermassive Games’ latest interactive narrative-driven title, released on June 10 and gave players the chance to once again control a cast of teenagers who find themselves in a dire and life-threatening situation. So far, The Quarry has received predominantly positive reviews from critics, while user scores on Metacritic reflect a slightly less enthused player base.

For the most part, players seemed to enjoy the campy horror flick atmosphere of The Quarry, as well as the game’s graphics, replayability, and character development. Some of the primary complaints have been the AAA price tag for a relatively short experience, as The Quarry can be beaten in about 10 hours; the relatively safe story that doesn’t stray too far from standard; and, for some, the lack of an online multiplayer mode.

While couch co-op was available upon release, allowing players to pass a controller around for a shared experience, The Quarry’s online multiplayer mode was delayed and given an early July release date. In a recent IGN interview, Supermassive revealed that the postponement was due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Part of the studio’s development team was based in Ukraine, said Creative Director Will Byles, “so we had to delay the multiplayer because they had to move.” In fact, for safety reasons, the entire server had to be relocated from Kyiv, Ukraine, to Warsaw, Poland. Therefore, although the multiplayer mode is completely finished, it still requires a few weeks of testing to make sure everything is working properly.

The online multiplayer mode in The Quarry allows up to eight people to play together, with one person serving as host. The seven other players are primarily spectators and vote on critical decisions. A third game mode, Movie Mode, lets people sit back and watch events in The Quarry play out as if it really were a film, with pre-selected outcomes.

While some people will strive to get everyone killed and see the game’s worst possible ending, others will find it just as challenging to make it through to the end with all characters alive. This is where The Quarry’s new Death Rewind feature comes in, which gives players up to three chances to try again if a character dies during the game.

One of the strong points, and something that players have praised in reviews, are the many branching paths in the game, which give a lot of options for multiple playthroughs. Supermassive has stated that there are nearly 200 endings in The Quarry, as well as a number of collectibles like tarot cards and story-related clues. This means that there should be plenty to keep players busy while they wait for the game's online multiplayer mode to be released.