TreatySony’s new hero shooter may be DOA, but its spirit will live on. Launched on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC on August 23, it was removed from stores on September 3, with servers shutting down completely on September 6. Treaty will have one final spark in mainstream culture when its characters hit the small screen in Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming animated anthology series Secret LevelPolygon has confirmed with sources close to the production that despite Sony’s decision to pull the game entirely, there is an episode inspired by TreatyThe knowledge and design of ‘s will be rolled out when Secret Level premiere in December.
The sci-fi setting of Treaty was one of the theoretical main draws of the game, with Sony and Firewalk Studios investing heavily in weekly cinematic lore drops that would introduce potential players to the Freegunner crew of the Northstar, a space pirate ship that would travel between planets in the game’s galaxy. The animated content produced for Treaty was… quite handsomeBut the attempt to give the unknown characters as much emphasis as the play itself failed to resonate with audiences, and the play debuted with a disappointing number of players.
The cold response eventually led to Sony pulling the plug Treaty offline, and are promising refunds to players who bought early. The company also said it would “explore options” for what the pay-to-play game would look like, “including options that will better reach our players.”
Anyone who mourns the loss of Treaty — and there are still a few players still leveling up in the final hours of its existence — should get you even more excited for Secret LevelCreated by Blur Studio’s Tim Miller, who has experience with genre-bending, animation-stretching anthology series after producing Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots, Secret Level brings unique adventures across games to life with cinema-quality productions. Treaty is on the agenda, along with episodes inspired by Armored Core, CrossfireDungeons & Dragons, Exodus, Honor of kingsMega Man, New World: AeternumPAC-MAN, Sifu, Cavernous, The Outer Worlds, Unreal tournament, Warhammer 40,000and an episode dedicated to PlayStation characters, which definitely includes Astro Bot.
Treaty didn’t work for the masses as a game. If the lore was a priority enough to pump out animated episode updates every week, would it work better as a TV?
Secret Level premieres on Prime Video on December 10.