Smash Bros. Mod Project Ends Development After Six Years

Development on Project M, a popular modding project for 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl, has ended. The team behind the initiative announced the news in a post on its website. They had been working on Project M for more than six years but have decided to bring things to a close rather than "let it drag on."

"We realize that this will come as a shock to many of our fans. Please, forgive us," it said. "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.

"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," the team added. "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."

The team behind Project M is "hard at work" on unspecified new projects, which are being "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," they said. "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."

Files for Project M, which had been available for free, are no longer featured on the team's website. In fact, the entire website has been scrubbed clean except for the shutdown announcement.

For more on Project M, check out the GameSpot Now Playing video above, in which we check out the 3.0 version.