Surprise! Planetside Arena Has Been Cancelled


In a business decision that even Michael Pachter could have correctly predicted, Daybreak Game Company has announced that Planetside Arena will go to the big recycling bin in the sky. It’s the same recycling bin that Everquest Next resides in.

Planetside Arena is a battle royale spinoff of the similarly titled Planetside 2, and launched this year to what can be described as more-than-unanimously negative reception. In addition to rather low review scores, Planetside Arena almost immediately suffered from a radical drop in player count; down into the single digits just a few months after coming out. For a game that relies on 12-man squads, it was literally unplayable.

The Planetside Arena servers will be playable until January 10, 2020 for the three people who still log in to check their cosmetics. Those who invested any real money in the game will see their purchases refunded by Steam after the game shuts down.

The full announcement has been posted below for your pleasure. Post and FAQ available on the official website.

Hello Everyone,

After careful consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down PlanetSide Arena servers.

While our team set out with an ambitious vision for a game that combined the massive-scale combat and camaraderie of PlanetSide through a diverse collection of new game modes, it has become clear after several months in Early Access that our population levels make it impossible to sustain the gameplay experience we envisioned.

As a result, PlanetSide Arena will formally shut down servers on January 10th, 2020 at 5:00 PM (PST). We are actively working with Steam to ensure that all players who made purchases during Early Access will automatically receive a full refund to their Steam Wallet after servers shut down in January.

Thank you again for your loyalty and support during Beta and Early Access. Your feedback was invaluable, and your enduring passion for PlanetSide remains the bedrock our community is built upon. As painful as it is to close this chapter so quickly, we remain deeply committed to this franchise, and look forward to continuing this journey through the PlanetSide Universe with all of you.

Andy Sites
Executive Producer, PlanetSide Franchise