Midwinter Entertainment

Midwinter Entertainment was a game development studio based in the greater Seattle area, established in December 2016 by developers with experience at 343 Industries and DICE. Its work focused on multiplayer action and survival games for PC and console, bringing cooperative and competitive play together in shared worlds. The studio operated independently before joining Improbable in 2019 and Behaviour Interactive in 2022. It closed in September 2024.

Multiplayer development

The studio's debut game, Scavengers, was a free-to-play, team-based survival shooter set in a post-apocalyptic world. It combined player-versus-environment encounters with player-versus-player competition, an approach described as “co-opetition.” Developed with Unreal Engine 4 and Improbable's SpatialOS cloud simulation architecture, the game reflected Midwinter's focus on large-scale multiplayer experiences.

Scavengers entered Steam Early Access in April 2021. Following Behaviour's acquisition of the studio, its planned console versions were discontinued. The PC game's servers closed on December 16, 2022, after player numbers proved insufficient to sustain the service.

Midwinter's development capabilities spanned game design, systems engineering, 3D art, animation and live-service prototyping. Its projects brought these disciplines together around multiplayer systems, survival mechanics and world-building.

Ownership and final project

Improbable acquired Midwinter in September 2019 as part of its internal game development business and its efforts to demonstrate SpatialOS. When Improbable shifted its attention toward metaverse technology, Behaviour Interactive agreed to purchase the studio in May 2022, completing the acquisition on June 2 that year.

Under Behaviour, Midwinter developed Project T, a cooperative PvE action shooter for one to four players set in the Dead by Daylight universe. The project reached closed playtesting but was cancelled before release. Following July 2024 playtests and an internal assessment of its commercial and design prospects, Behaviour announced the cancellation on September 17, 2024, and confirmed Midwinter's closure. Employees were offered relocation to Behaviour's Canadian studios or severance.