Highly anticipated AAA first-person extraction shooter Shrapnel has today launched its early version of gameplay. Titled Shrapnel Training Exercises One (STX1), it’s the first opportunity for gamers globally to play via the Epic Games Store.
In contrast to traditional AAA game release schedules, wherein studios keep their communities in the dark about gameplay and design until it is completely finalized, Shrapnel is honoring its community-first approach and involving its community at every stage of development until the launch of its free-to-play game in 2025. To date, Shrapnel’s pre-launch community of more than 100,000 Discord members and 350,000 X followers have shaped the game through ongoing feedback and votes on key design and story decisions, even having their artwork included in the award-winning cinematic trailer.
STX1 and future versions will grow and engage the Shrapnel community, test the game, and solicit feedback from players. This will help the team to improve Shrapnel, utilizing its engaged pool of pre-launch players to elevate gameplay. Notable data points and feedback the team are interested in collecting include player engagement times, the most popular maps, weapons, and ways of playing the game. In addition, they aim to test and improve server stability and response time.
STX1 is the first of numerous playable game builds that are available to both new players via the Epic Games Store and the 3,000 players who have already purchased ‘Extraction Packs’ – bundles of cosmetics and consumables that gave early purchasers/community members benefits. These players will be granted access to the game in select windows of play made up of three eight-hour days.
STX1 includes the first of many playable characters at maximum progression level. Players will also have access to three guns, a grenade, and the first of many special Sigma abilities called “Sigma Wave”. Sigma is the mysterious resource players fight to collect to power up their gear and abilities in the game. Future Shrapnel Training Exercises (STX) versions will see these increase. As Shrapnel progresses through the different early access stages, creators will be able to customize every aspect of the game, from its characters and weapons, to in-game maps. The leaderboards online will track the most skilled players, ranked by the amount of Sigma extracted, and rewarded from Shrapnel’s community rewards pool. They are empowered to market and trade their creations for real rewards and can track the usage and history of all assets they interact with, fostering a unique and powerful creator ecosystem, and unlocking a potential source of income for players.
Mark Long, CEO of Shrapnel, said, “Throughout the inception and development of Shrapnel, feedback from our passionate community has always been invaluable, shaping the game into what it is today. We had a dream of breaking the mold of traditional game development, and our execution of early access gameplay puts players right in the driver’s seat, helping us steer towards a blockbuster-quality AAA first-person shooter game. This is both scary and exciting but with our community behind us as we progress through the different stages of the Shrapnel Training Exercises, we’ll continue to deliver on our promise to listen, reward and empower players and creators.”
The Shrapnel universe is set in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian world where nations and factions battle to control a ravaged area called the Sacrifice Zone and accumulate the most Sigma, the powerful material it contains. The universe transcends the parameters of a AAA first person shooter crossing over into multiple verticals, including a series of comic books that showcases Shrapnel’s lore and a live-action short film, which has won critical acclaim and numerous awards.
Spun out from HBO Interactive, Shrapnel is being developed by a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning team of game industry veterans with unmatched experience in transmedia, virtual production, gaming-as-a-service, and blockchain production. The acclaimed team brings a wealth of experience having enjoyed past successes with some of the world’s leading game companies including Xbox, Electronic Arts, HBO, LucasFilm, Irrational, and Zombie Ent, working on titles such as Halo, Call of Duty, Star Wars, and many more. The launch of STX1 follows Shrapnel’s recent $20 million Series A raise in late 2023, which brought the total funding raised thus far to $37.5 million.
