Project M Ceases Development: v3.6 To Be Final Release

We report this news to you today with a heavy heart. As announced on the official Project M website, development for the game has been finished. Project M v3.6 will be the last release of Project M. Here is the official statement from the development team.

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Hello friends,

Six years ago, we started a journey born out of our shared love for competitive fighting games. Eventually, the electrifying passion that coursed through us arced out and drew in more people until our small circle of friends grew into a team, and that team grew into an international community. Project M and its community have grown larger than any of us ever anticipated, and it’s truly heartwarming to see all of the unforgettable connections and friendships that have been forged through this project.

Unfortunately, we’re here to say that we’re at the end of that road.

We’ve learned so much in the process of making Project M—accumulating life-changing lessons in communication, team work, professionalism, work ethic, and more—but there’s only so far we can take those skills in a volunteer project. With this in mind, we’ve made a difficult business decision: We’re ready to finish development here and move on to bigger and better ventures.

We realize that this will come as a shock to many of our fans. Please, forgive us. Again, it’s been an excruciating call to make, but it’s been made a bit easier by our satisfaction with the previous and final release, v3.6. We’ve spent six years polishing Project M, and rather than let it drag on through another several years of dwindling development and change-fatigue in the competitive circle, we’re going to consider our work complete.

In the mean time, we plan to be hard at work on new projects, built from the ground up. We can’t spill the beans just yet, but know that we’re looking towards a fresh start with brand new designs. Rather than splitting our focus, many of us want to dedicate ourselves to this new venture fully. In this way, we hope to maintain the level of quality and professionalism you’ve come to expect from us.

In summary, we are ceasing development of Project M (effective immediately) and will be making no further releases as we turn our attention towards an entirely new venture. As the PMDev team will be formally disbanded, please forward all official communications regarding Project M to video game attorney and business consultant Ryan Morrison. We appreciate your support and your understanding.

One final time,

PMDev

Thank you for playing!

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What does this mean for the future of Project M at tournaments? What exciting project could the Project M team be up to next? Let us know in the comments below and share your favorite memories from the game's various releases. From Demo 1.0 to v3.6 it has been an incredible ride and we at Smashboards wish the Project M Development Team the best of luck in all future adventures.

Writer's Note: Hey guys, SmashCapps here. I know this has some folks sad and shaken up but I wanted to make sure everyone knows that Project M no longer being updated was not because a cease and desist.

To clarify: We weren't contacted, issued a C&D, threatened or had legal action taken against us in any way, but we want it to stay that way.

— Ryan Morrison (@Morrison) December 2, 2015

Hope that clears things up! Thanks for reading as always everyone!

 

This is really saddening as Project M was my favorite, but I hope the Dev team all have good luck in future endeavors and I hope the game is remembered fondly by all of us.

A Huge Thank you, from all of us that enjoyed the game, and will continue to play it!

 

Thank You PMDT

 

I don't really know what to say.
...
Well, regardless of reason, Project M is still pretty packed as of 3.6, so yeah, I can see this happening.
I mean it's pretty good.
Can't say I played it that much, but when I did, it was good/fun/good fun.
...
Hope the general reaction to this isn't just a gigantic bottle of vitriol.
Still though, whatever future projects are going on, I give my support, and I'm interested to see what will come out of those.

 

Project Meme.

 

RIP

Will be interesting to see what the other projects they're talking about are.

 

Question is the download link for 3.6 gone forever as well

 

inb4 massive amounts of ****posting

 

BibleThump

 

#GimRWins

But damn PMDT.

 

D:

...

well....perhaps in a way this is a good thing, project M has been fine tuned incredibly since it was first released, and it has tons of fan-service in it, not just to competitive smash fans, but nintendo fans in general. Including many that we have to wonder "why didn't sakurai think of this"

This will also ensure that people don't have to go and upgrade to the newest version of project M every time a new version is out.

I do have to wonder about that one sentence though....

"Project M to video game attorney and business consultant Ryan Morrison"


This strikes me as odd, and tells me that perhaps something else is up.....perhaps nintendo had something to do with this.....

 

Sad to see there won't be any further updates, but I'm interested to see the metagame finally start to evolve on its own without constant updates.

 

Thanks for getting me into the competitive scene, PMDT. It was a blast.

 

Personally I disagree with this decision, but it seems strange to just abruptly rip everything down and say they're "ceasing development" instead of saying they're reaching the finalization or something. They could have built up to as a goodbye, but they just sort of packed up and said "Bye." Hope future projects go well however.

 

Question is the download link for 3.6 gone forever as well

Ask for people to share their files with you. I go all the way back to 2.1 and don't care if they didn't like people sharing old builds.

 

This had to be a C&D. They had so much in the works, and they always talked about how they had plans for the future.

 

 

Just checked the website and the only page available is that message-- meaning downloading from the official site itself doesn't work.
Good thing I downloaded it literally 3 days before this announcement.

 

 

I said in the 20XXTE thread yesterday that I didn't think that PM would be around much longer. And look who was right.

Blame Nintendo for this.

 

Well, G&W for forever top tier

 

Wait, what? Why did they stop? Does anyone know why?

 

Not shocked that it is ending. After Sm4sh released PM was already shrinking in popularity and the PM team was always going to be limited on what they could get away with when using other peoples IP's. Hope they make their own Smash like game, or something that they could actually make money off and be free to do whatever they want with it instead of trying to push a mod of a game.

 

Saw this coming, between smash 4 and nintendo, they had no shot. I likthe game, but I prefer the actual thing. Still, they should be glad they made such an outstanding mod!

 

Wait, what? Why did they stop? Does anyone know why?

No, and they are legally restricted from saying anything about it.

or something. idk

 

Personally I disagree with this decision, but it seems strange to just abruptly rip everything down and say they're "ceasing development" instead of saying they're reaching the finalization or something.

imo it being banned from twitch was kind of like nintendo stabbing it and then letting it bleed out

 

D:

...

well....perhaps in a way this is a good thing, project M has been fine tuned incredibly since it was first released, and it has tons of fan-service in it, not just to competitive smash fans, but nintendo fans in general. Including many that we have to wonder "why didn't sakurai think of this"

This will also ensure that people don't have to go and upgrade to the newest version of project M every time a new version is out.

I do have to wonder about that one sentence though....

"Project M to video game attorney and business consultant Ryan Morrison"


This strikes me as odd, and tells me that perhaps something else is up.....perhaps nintendo had something to do with this.....

They ripped all the downloads and everything they had on the website off. I don't think they wanted to do this to be honest, this is very fishy. There's just the note from the PMDT on the website... I'm certain someone at Nintendo is a massive scumbag

 

MAYBE THEY are MAKING MELEE HD next...But I doubt that's the case. RIP

 

Wait, what? Why did they stop? Does anyone know why?

All we know right now is that it certainly wasn't because of a cease and desist notice by Nintendo.

 

Was a fun time playing pm

 

Welp...
RIP

 

Disappointed Link'so grab will never be fixed, but... I suppose it was a good time for them.

Here'so hoping there are many PM tournaments long past the end of updates.

 

But what about people that has been waiting for the pal version?

 

Dont know wether or not to like this article

 

inb4 this is somehow related to the Smash Direct this month

 

So what happened with the new costumes that were revealed the other day? Couldn't they just add those in before leaving?

Damn this has to have been pretty rough for them

Side note: I had just made myself a profile here in smashboards today just so I can join in on PM stuff. This isn't what I wanted to see...

 

It's kinda' disappointing to hear, but I wish the best of luck to the Project M team on future endeavors. They're all very talented and deserve the best.

 

Reasons that hint to this being a C&D:

• The quiet responses to those "punished" for using Project M
• The fact that the recent post has all questions directed to the lawyer
• The downloads to their site being removed
• The members of the team saying it isn't a C&D, but not going into detail
• No exact answer as to why this was closed
• The recent reveal of PM Art Tuesday two weeks ago shows the team was thriving with work, but something must have recently happened
• Legally restricted to say the actual reason of closing the game's development, or at least refuse to directly share what is going on behind the scenes

It'll be hard to move on from this magnificent piece of a game. I had so much great times with it, and it really helped me out with my skills crossing over to Melee. I hope that one day, Nintendo looks at this event as a grave mistake on their part. I literally bought three copies just to spread the word of Project M, and help support both my favorite company, and my favorite developers.

Today was a bad day. Best of luck to the team. They're so talented.

 

But what about people that has been waiting for the pal version?

People waiting for a PAL version are boned I assume.

 

@pooch182 "Slighty sad news" my behind!!!