Motiga's Gigantic rampages back to life in April

Gigantic, Motiga's once-dead (and briefly-revived) MOBA, is making a comeback. On April 9, Gigantic: Rampage Edition will release for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

Whereas the original game was a free-to-play title, this new Gigantic will run $20. It'll also be a more contained (read: not a live-service) affair.

Heading up the revival effort is Abstraction Games. The Dutch studio's specialty is updating older titles to current-gen: its resume includes Mass Effect: Legendary Edition and Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

With Motiga gone, the new Gigantic is fully Abstraction's. Speaking to Polygon, senior designer Bart Vossen said Abstraction "respect[s] what the original developers did and what players loved about it."

The new Gigantic will include crossplay and general quality of life changes. It'll also feature characters and modes Motiga weren't able to add before the game's shutdown.

In a statement, Motiga co-founder Christopher Chung "greatly appreciated" Gearbox and Abstraction for "[keeping] the core of what made Gigantic special."

"I’m positive all players, including new [ones] who didn’t have a chance to play the original game, will fall in love with Gigantic: Rampage Edition," he added.

What does Gigantic's new lease on life mean?

Ongoing online games can often be a crap shoot, and 2023 showed that more than most years. Several titles were shut down within a year (or less) after their original launch.

Gigantic's resurgence may spell a new future for other defunct online games. But that's only if it continuously performs well and shows other publishers a revival would be worth the effort.

Arguably, the best-case scenario can been seen last year, when older Call of Duty games became Xbox bestsellers. In that case, it was because of a simple server fix, but it still shows how easy it is to draw attention back onto an older title.

And even if this ultimately doesn't become a larger industry trend, it's still a good move just on the preservation front.