High-profile release turned into a disaster: Cuffbust lost over 90% of its audience in three days

The creator of Choo-Choo Charles returned with a new project but failed to replicate his earlier success. His latest release, Cuffbust — a multiplayer action game about chaotic prison escapes — launched a few days ago and quickly proved disappointing.

The developers promised large-scale 20-player skirmishes, destructible environments and a map editor. In reality the game shipped with numerous bugs and largely deserted servers. Within days of release the online population plunged. On Steam the title carries a “Mixed” rating — only 57% positive reviews — a strikingly poor result for the project. Players are reporting technical issues and a lack of content to sustain long-term interest.

At its peak Cuffbust attracted 1,470 concurrent players — a respectable figure for a solo developer, but far short of the expectations the industry had after Jeff Keely’s showcase. The situation has since worsened: the creator cut the price from $20 to $10, yet at the time of publication only about 80 players were active on servers. In other words, the player base fell by more than 90% in three days, turning an ambitious launch into one of the season’s swiftest flops.

Source: iXBT.games