Firebreak Finally Adds Built In Voice Chat
FBC: Firebreak launched back in June as a co op shooter set in the weird world of Control. On paper it sounded like a great time team up with friends and fight the Hiss inside the Oldest House. In reality though, the game dropped the ball on one very basic feature: voice chat.
For a game built entirely around cooperation, not having native voice chat was a huge miss. Yes, players could jump on Discord or other apps, but that adds friction. It is even worse when you are playing across different platforms and everyone has to juggle accounts, invites, and audio setups just to talk.
Five months later, Remedy has finally fixed that. In a new update, the studio has added cross platform voice chat to every version of Firebreak. That means you can now talk directly with your squad no matter where they are playing, without needing any extra software.
It sounds simple, but this kind of quality of life upgrade can completely change how a co op shooter feels. When you can call out targets, panic together when the Hiss floods the room, or just joke around between fights, it makes the grind feel more like hanging out than working through a checklist.
This update alone will not suddenly turn Firebreak into a smash hit, but it removes one of the most obvious reasons players bounced off the game at launch.
Rogue Protocol Delayed But Endless Shift Sounds Promising
The same announcement brought a bit of disappointing news. Firebreakâs next big update, called Rogue Protocol, has slipped to 2026. The original plan was to launch it alongside voice chat, but Remedy says the new mode needs more time to cook.
Rogue Protocol is not just a small tweak. It introduces a completely new way to play, a mode called Endless Shift. If you have spent any time with Vampire Survivors or other wave based survival roguelites, the pitch will sound very familiar, and that is not a bad thing.
Here is how Endless Shift works based on what Remedy has shared so far:
- You drop into a sealed area of the Oldest House with very basic gear.
- Waves of Hiss enemies pour in and your job is simply to survive.
- Every enemy you defeat drops a resource called Corruption.
- Between waves you spend Corruption on upgrades, weapons, and enhancements.
The twist is in the upgrades themselves. Some are straightforward damage or defense boosts. Others change how your abilities work in unexpected ways. The upgrades stack, which means every run can end with bizarre combinations that are completely over the top.
Remedy even hints at wild, game breaking synergies. Think builds where your powers chain off each other in ridiculous ways while you face new enemy mixes and elite variants that try to keep up with your growing power.
Endless Shift will also have its own reward system. Some of those rewards can be carried back into the existing campaign style mode that plays a bit like a supernatural Left 4 Dead. That connection might give players a reason to jump between modes instead of treating Endless Shift as a one and done distraction.
None of this is revolutionary but it lines up with a trend we have seen across a lot of games. Age of Empires 4 added its own roguelite survival style mode in a recent DLC and fans loved it. Mixing a tight core game with quick runs and crazy upgrade paths is a proven formula for getting players to come back for just one more round.
Can Endless Shift Save Firebreak?
The big question is whether all of this will actually matter for Firebreak. So far the signs have not been great. Remedy already tried a massive overhaul with the Breakpoint update. While it improved the game in several ways, it did not bring in the kind of player numbers or sales the studio was hoping for.
The financial hit was serious enough that Remedy had to record a non cash impairment of 14.9 million euros tied to Firebreak. In plain language, the game underperformed so badly that the company had to adjust how it values the project internally. Remedy has also shifted some development resources away from Firebreak to other games in production.
Given all that, it is honestly surprising that the studio is still investing in new modes and systems for this co op shooter. The addition of cross platform voice chat and the promise of Endless Shift in 2026 suggest that Remedy is not ready to abandon the Oldest House just yet.
If Endless Shift lands well, it could give Firebreak a second wind. A replayable, upgrade heavy survival mode is exactly the kind of thing that can hook players who bounced off the original structure. Throw in proper voice chat and friends might be more willing to reinstall and give it another shot.
There are still plenty of unknowns. We do not know how generous the rewards will be, how quickly you unlock upgrades, or how much variety there really is from run to run. And a delayed launch into 2026 means any momentum from this voice chat update has to last a long time.
Still, there is a clear path here. Firebreak now has the basic social tools it should have had at launch. In the future it will get a mode that leans into the chaotic power trip side of Controlâs universe. If Remedy can pull it off, Endless Shift might be exactly the comeback arc Firebreak needs.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/5-months-after-launch-cooperative-shooter-fbc-firebreak-finally-has-integrated-voice-chat-but-its-vampire-survivors-style-wave-mode-is-delayed-until-next-year/
