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Press releases
Riftbound Arena — Season 9: Ashglass brings a new hero, a ranked reset and a rebuilt Foundry map
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Cindercrest Studios today launched Season 9: Ashglass, the ninth seasonal update to its free-to-play 5v5 hero shooter Riftbound Arena. The season introduces Sable, a mid-range duellist built around a deployable refraction pane, and resets the ranked ladder for all divisions.
Ashglass also ships a substantial rework of the Foundry map, widening the two side approaches and removing the upper catwalk that had dominated professional and high-ladder play since 2024. A balance pass touches nine of the game's twelve heroes, and the season's cosmetic track is, as always, cosmetic only.
"Foundry has been the map everyone complains about and nobody wants removed," said Ray Vasquez, Game Director and co-founder. "So we kept the shape people love and took out the bit that was quietly deciding rounds."
— ENDS — Media contact: press@cindercreststudios.com
Cindercrest Studios joins the Cerberus closed beta for Riftbound Arena anti-cheat
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Cindercrest Studios has signed on to the closed beta of Cerberus, a PC anti-cheat platform, and will begin a staged deployment across Riftbound Arena over the coming months. The rollout starts with ranked queues before any wider expansion, and the studio is being explicit that this is beta software in a beta programme.
The decision follows a sustained period of paid cheat development aimed specifically at Riftbound Arena, with aim assistance and wallhack tools built against the game client and sold through a small cluster of private communities and storefronts. Cindercrest's interest in Cerberus is in its behavioural analysis of in-game input and its server-side correlation of anomalies across players in the same match, rather than in signature matching alone. Cerberus includes a kernel-mode driver component that loads when the game launches and unloads when it exits; it does not run when the game is not running.
"The people selling these tools advertise in the open, and they treat our ranked ladder as a product feature," said Marcus Webb, Community & Trust Lead at Cindercrest Studios. "We are not promising to make cheating impossible. We are trying to make building and reselling a working cheat for this game materially harder, slower and less profitable than it is today — and to be straight with players about what we find either way."
Cindercrest will publish results from the staged rollout in its regular update posts, including cases where the deployment does not go to plan. Players can read what the anti-cheat component does and when it runs on the studio's legal page and in the Riftbound Arena system requirements.
— ENDS — Media contact: press@cindercreststudios.com
Cindercrest Studios appoints Elena Marchetti as Director of Live Operations
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Cindercrest Studios has appointed Elena Marchetti to the newly created role of Director of Live Operations, reporting to Studio Head and co-founder Delia Okonkwo. Marchetti joins from an independent studio where she spent six years running seasonal content for a live multiplayer title.
The role brings the season pipeline, matchmaking services and player support reporting lines under a single owner. Cindercrest has run Riftbound Arena on a roughly ten-week season cadence since 2023 and says the new role is intended to protect that cadence as the team grows.
"We built the live game one season at a time and it shows in places," said Delia Okonkwo. "Elena has done this at a scale we haven't, and she is allowed to tell us we're wrong."
— ENDS — Media contact: press@cindercreststudios.com
Cindercrest Studios and Halfstep Collective launch the Riftbound Open Circuit for community organisers
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Cindercrest Studios and grassroots tournament organiser Halfstep Collective today announced the Riftbound Open Circuit, a season-long series of open-entry Riftbound Arena tournaments run by community organisers across North America and Europe.
The circuit consists of eight monthly open brackets and a season final. Cindercrest is providing tournament server capacity, a spectator build and a modest prize contribution; Halfstep Collective handles scheduling, officiating and broadcast. Entry is free, and organisers who want to run a qualifying event can apply through Halfstep.
"Our competitive scene has always been people with a spreadsheet and a Discord server," said Priya Shah, Season Producer at Cindercrest Studios. "This is us paying for the server bill and then getting out of their way."
— ENDS — Media contact: press@cindercreststudios.com
