Tactical shooter Ready or Not, which sees players commanding a S.W.A.T. team to defuse hostile situations and rescue hostages, will no longer be published by Team17.
While no specific reason was given by the publisher, many are pointing to the fact that a Ready or Not developer from Void Interactive recently made a (since-removed) comment on Reddit to say, "You better believe it's gonna," when asked if the game would receive a mission set during a school shooting. While there isn't currently a mission set in a school in the game, Ready or Not's cinematic reveal trailer does include a brief glimpse at what looks to be a school setting.
Team17 has not elaborated on the reason for ending the partnership, telling Kotaku in a statement that the agreement to no longer publish the game was mutual, that it wishes Void Interactive the best, and that it has no further comment at the moment.
Void Interactive's statement also doesn't mention a reason for the breakup, only stating that the decision was mutual.
"Void Interactive and Team17 have mutually agreed that Team17 will no longer publish Ready or Not," a tweet from Void Interactive reads. " We are confident that this is the right path for the future of Ready or Not, and we thank Team17 for their partnership and wish them great success with their spectrum of games."
In a follow-up tweet, Void Interactive stated that it is still dedicated to supporting Ready or Not and will be taking into account player feedback as it looks to roll out frequent updates to the game in the coming weeks and months. The developer also promised improvements to AI behaviors, adding more voiceovers, mod support, and new levels. It's currently unclear if those new levels would include a school shooting mission. Ready or Not recently entered Early Access on Steam and currently has "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews.