Scavengers got so much attention on its first day, the devs ran out of keys

Source: Midwinter Entertainment

Scavengers, the new PvPvE battle royale game that just entered Early Access, has proved so popular that the developers say they’ve used up their supply of Steam game keys. These keys have been largely distributed through Twitch, which has also helped to foster gamer interest.

Scavengers officially launched in Early Access on April 28 for both Steam and Epic Games. At the moment, the game is only available to play on those two stores, though the developers plan to release the game on consoles by the end of 2021. Creative director Josh Holmes published a Steam blog post thanking readers for their interest in the game.

For reference, users can currently only access the game if they’ve watched a Twitch streamer play it long enough to receive a “drop.” The drop gives them a key with which to access the game. According to Holmes, “We’re burning through Early Access keys at a crazy rate, and some of you may have noticed that we switched at some point from giving away Scavengers Steam keys to Epic Game Store keys… At this moment, we’ve exhausted our cache of Steam keys, but have been able to secure enough Epic Games Store keys to keep up.”

The developers acknowledge that there have also been problems with the game’s launch. Given it’s an early access online multiplayer title, problems are to be expected, but you still hate to see it. In fact, the server issues appear to be a major reason why the developers aren’t opening access to the game, with the other being that the limited key drops are keeping user interest in the game high.

Holmes says of the major server issue: “The summary is: when our pre-game lobby servers hit a certain player threshold, they crash… We’re chasing down that root cause as fast as we can and will keep you updated throughout the process.” They also add that the game servers themselves are largely stable so far.