The Amazing Eternals [PC - Cancelled]

The Amazing Eternals (formerly known as Keystone) is a cancelled Free-to-Play sci-fi team-based multiplayer online first-person shooter and cards game hybrid developed and published by Digital Extremes, from 2015 to 2017, exclusively for PC. It used collectible cards to determine the character’s additional abilities during a match and included deck-building for customized gameplay.

Players was traveling through a 1970s-themed “multiverse” represented by a virtual game board with decks of cards that confered special bonuses, powers, and weapons. The game moved into closed beta in September 2017 with a total of 6 playable characters named Eternals:

Winter – A ruthless Carythian bounty hunter, the most infamous in the galaxy. Rumored to have assassinated the King of the Cosmos, he rarely rejects a job.
As word spread of the arrival of alien heroes into his reality, whispers of a galactic prophecy began to circulate. Winter is now contracted to track down and stop the rebel scientist responsible.
Winter, Skirmisher specializes in intense frontline combat. With a well-timed Red Vora stim, he stabilizes his health and jump starts regeneration, keeping him in the fight.
Nautica – Shipwrecked at the age of five she survived on her own, clinging to the debris of her ship for weeks on end. Found and rescued by the World Turtle, Nautica grew up with the colorful residents who lived on her protector’s back.
Imbued with the powers of the ocean, and trained by powerful water elementals, Nautica has returned to save the planet and heal the world.
Nautica, Sea Star calls forth a giant, shimmering sea star to shower allies with healing water.
Ray – Mission Specialist Raymond Windstone: Astronaut. Mechanic. Nozzle enthusiast.
Four-time “Action Science” Magazine”s Man of the Year, Ray is a man out of time. Pulled from his reality by mysterious forces and facing danger on the fringes of known space his wit and mechanical skills keep him alive… and looking good doing it.
Ray, Combat Engineer supports ally positions with a Pulse Turret, putting additional pressure on enemy forces or just causing a clever distraction.
Niia – A resourceful huntress. Surviving in the harsh desert wastes, she’s become a master marksman and tracker out of necessity. Spending almost her entire life alone she drifts between settlements taking odd and often unsavoury jobs that suit her particular set of skills. She has never lost a quarry and has never missed a shot. Charging her bow increases effectiveness. She also uses a Ritual Spear, an ancient family heirloom.
Her unnatural talents may stem from her ability to attune her spirit to those of her ancestors, calling on them in times of need.
Niia, Elusive Trapper throws a slowing trap that makes enemies easier targets. Can help Niia evade pursuers. Her Haunt ability tracks and exposes targets.
Bristle – A creature of myth; a manifestation of pure primal terror.
Folktales tell of Bristle taking children in the dark of night when nothing stirs, their bones discovered years later, meters from where they had entered the forest.
He comes for you: a creature born of your fear of the forgotten places. A ravenous legend.
Lumbering. Hungering. Pitiless. Starving for the nourishment of your blood, and bone.
Bristle, Bark Wall springs forth a dense woodland barrier that blocks pathways and sightlines, allowing allies a safe place to take cover.
Dread – Grotesque and vile, Dread is both a monstrosity of creation and a marvel of science. After a series of forbidden experiments to resurrect the dead a husband and wife team, to their great misfortune, discovered the secret of eternal life.
A horrible accident crippled Anabel, killed her husband and leveled their lab. Years later, obsessed and mad with grief Anabel, harnessing the blackest of machinery and unholy electricity, honored their work by reanimating her husband; but what came back was something else. Something… not him.
Dread, Havoc Bag throws a volatile contraption that explodes with electric fury, dealing damage and disabling enemy devices for a short time.

But unfortunately, the game was quickly put on-hold on October 27th, 2017, less than two months after lauching into beta, as we can read on MCV:

“After many discussions internally on the state of The Amazing Eternals, we have decided to hit the pause button on development at this time,” a Digital Extremes statement confirmed. “This decision didn’t come lightly. We worked hard to make a game that we are proud to say was shaping up to have great potential.
“However, we took an honest look at the current gaming landscape and how the game was performing in Closed Beta. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t attracting players fast enough to support a viable matchmaking player base with the current game design direction, which is the lifeblood of this type of game. So, with heavy hearts, we’re taking a step back to reevaluate the design and may revisit our intrepid heroes in the future.”
The game was announced last spring and only received its official name in August. It was to be a free-to-play multiplayer “hero shooter”. Early footage had a whiff of Overwatch about it, but it certainly boasted its own style, leaning into a 1960/70s aesthetic.

Some months later, on July 9th, 2018, Meridith Braun shared to PCGamesN more information on why they decided to pull the plug on the project:

“A lot of things were converging at the same time then and what we realised was that it was the right game at the wrong time. The competitive landscape at that time was pretty hefty. We just saw LawBreakers not do so great, and it was a fantastic game, so that was sad. That happened right when we were starting our closed beta for Amazing Eternals.”
LawBreakers got plenty of negative publicity around its release, but it was directed more at the game’s low player count than its actual quality. The game reviewed well enough, and the few players it had seemed to enjoy sticking with it, though it wasn’t enough to compete against the likes of Overwatch and the rising tide of battle royale. At the time, director Cliff Bleszinski pointed to Warframe as an example of a game able to escape low player counts.
At around the same time, Digital Extremes announced the Plains of Eidolon expansion. Braun says “that really blew up and doubled the numbers on Warframe, and suddenly that became the resource hog that we hadn’t realised.”
“We weren’t seeing the traction we had hoped for in the closed beta, and weighing that against the success of Plains of Eidolon it just made good business sense to pour those resources back into Warframe.” Thus, The Amazing Eternals was cancelled. “It was a hard decisions but it was the right decision at that time.”
But the developers aren’t giving up entirely on launching a new game.
“I think we’ll try again, but I don’t know when.”

Today, Digital Extremes is still around and kicking, thanks to the huge success of Warframe, whose last expansion was released on September 7th, 2022. On July 2022, they announced a brand new game called Soulframe, alongside a game developed by Airship Syndicate that they will publish.

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