Defunct – Page 14 – MMO Fallout

CalcMMO Shutting Down Today

It is truly a sad day here at MMO Fallout, as we must pass along the news that CalcMMO will be shutting down later today. What? You never heard of CalcMMO? CalcMMO is the world’s first and last TI-83 themed MMO, which launched on Steam’s early access earlier today. CalcMMO is free to play and scales down enough to run on a toaster. Those of you without sound cards are advised to make bleep sounds with your mouth.

CalcMMO was voted MMO Fallout’s Most Anticipated Game of 2014, making this news exceptionally disappointing. Thank you to Archive Entertainment for throwing this brick-strapped press release through my open window.

(Source: CalcMMO Press Release)

SOE Shutting Down Four MMOs

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that four of their MMOs will be shut down later this year: Wizardry Online, Free Realms, Vanguard, and Clone Wars Adventures. Free Realms and Clone Wars are set to shut down March 31st with Wizardry and Vanguard following on July 31st. Sony attributes the sunsetting of Free Realms and Clone Wars as being due to its user base growing up and finding new games, while Wizardry Online was due to a mutual agreement with the publisher. In the case of Vanguard, SOE was unable to get past technical issues with the game’s outdated engine.

player population numbers have decreased making it difficult to justify the resources needed to support and update this game. This is an older game and we’re experiencing more and more technical challenges to continue running and updating it in a way you deserve. Simply put, these are issues that cannot be fixed in the long term and as a player, we would be doing you a disservice and going against our company commitment to provide the best gameplay experiences. So given this information, sunsetting the game later this year is the inevitable conclusion.

Vanguard is the oldest title to shut down, having launched in 2007, with Free Realms and Clone Wars going live in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Wizardry Online launched last January. Vanguard being shut down is especially saddening when you consider that (prior to being stopped by technical issues) the company seemed rather excited to start working on it. Still, the good news is that workers affected by the shutdowns were apparently absorbed into the SOE hive mind to work on other projects.

(Source: Vanguard Announcement, Clone Wars Announcement, Wizardry Announcement, Free Realms Announcement)

MMOrning Shots: To Waaagh! And Back

Warhammer Online comes to a close today, after five years of operation. As much as we joke here at MMO Fallout about the MMO and just about everything else surrounding the game and its developer, we’re always sad to see a game shut down. There might not have been a lot of people playing Warhammer, but you can’t deny that they were a dedicated bunch. Warhammer Online still sits in quite a few eyes as having the best player vs player combat on the market, and the only true successor to Dark Age of Camelot.

While we are on the subject, has anyone seen Mark Jacobs’ upcoming MMO, Camelot Unchained?

Archlord Shutting Down In January

Archlord is one of those games whose history I have found difficult to track. This MMO began under Codemasters way back in 2005, launching to pretty low reviews before it went free to play and ultimately shut down in 2009. Webzen, who published Archlord in other territories, took on the role of global publisher. At one point, Webzen started talking about something called Archlord X, which according to this rather poorly translated Facebook notice from September 2012, has ceased development.

Thank you for waiting for release of Archlord X. We notice that all Archlord X contents containing various quest, enhanced battle system and efficient user interface will be applied to Archlord’s major expansion on September. We believe that qualified contents from Archlord X, which was used to enhance Archlord contents, will offer you exciting game environment. Please come to Archlord to enjoy Archlord X contents.

Sadly, Archlord itself will be shutting down January 1st, likely in preparation for the launch of Archlord 2. Compensation packages have not been finalized, and Webzen has promised more details in the coming weeks.

On August of 2009, Webzen.com was thrilled to release Archlord globally. Since official launch, we have been working hard to build a strong community and gaming environment through new content updates and various events. Unfortunately, we have come to a difficult decision to end this long journey we have enjoyed and cherished together. We understand that this will disappoint many of our players.

(Source: Archlord)

Glitch Assets Are Now Public Domain

Despite the failing of Glitch on a financial level, the folks at Tiny Speck have already cemented their place in our hearts. Rather than allow years of work to go to waste, the team at Tiny Speck has announced that all of the art assets (minus the logo and trademark, of course) have been relinquished to the public domain.

The entire library of art assets from the game, has been made freely available, dedicated to the public domain. Code from the game client is included to help developers work with the assets. All of it can be downloaded and used by anyone, for any purpose. (But: use it for good.)

You can find the library of assets at the link below. Hopefully the files are used for good.

(Source: Glitch HQ)

Rift Shutting Down In Russia

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Rift is shutting down in yet another region, and much like the Chinese version before it, the blame seems to lie in Trion Worlds not supporting localization. As posted on the official website, Belver announced that the servers would shut down October 25th, noting that the reason stems from Trion Worlds refusing to support the localized version. As compensation, Belver is offering bonuses in several of their other games.

Everyone who wants to join the players of our other online projects, the prizes and bonuses. After creating the new characters in Black Fire, Runes of Magic Audition 2 or just email our technical support at support.belver.ru login and enter the game that you played in the Rift and the new character in another of our game – after bonuses will be credited to you within 5 working days.

Chinese developer Shanda Games also laid the blame squarely on Trion World’s shoulders, noting very poor international relations from the developer and ignoring requests to localize content. Rift in China shut down just six months after is launch, while the service in Russia began in December 2011.

(Source: Official website)

Mechanist Games Revokes City of Steam From R2 Games

Back when I previewed City of Steam’s open beta, I noted that while the game was still fun in multiple aspects, that the game had been taken a rather notable hit in quality since its closed beta and before R2 Games was announced as the publisher. Certain game mechanics were severely simplified, the FAQ for the game was so shoddily put together that it was a combination of Engrish, questions and answers that had nothing to do with City of Steam, and bits rolled over from other games. The cash shop grew, prices rose, and suddenly Electrum found its way into many aspects of City of Steam life. And then the game stopped receiving updates and patches, and customer support went silent.

Players who left due to the monetization and simplification will be happy to hear that R2 Games will soon be out of the picture. Mechanist Games has announced on Facebook that they are taking back City of Steam. While the R2 Games servers will be shutting down November 21st, it will be relaunched as City of Steam: Arkadia.

Hello all, today we officially announce that Mechanist Games has taken CoS back. Stay tuned for City of Steam: Arcadia this November! More info coming soon!

R2 Games will not be offering refunds for any recent Electrum purchases.

(Source: City of Steam)

Everquest Mac Shutting Down For Real This Time

Some of you may remember that Sony Online Entertainment originally slated Everquest Mac to shut down in 2012, but decided against it due to passionate feedback from the community. Well passion can only get you so far, and in a letter posted to the community, John Smedley has announced that Everquest’s Mac iteration will be shutting down effective November 18th.

We said this before and now we really have to do it – we’re sunsetting EQ Mac. As a passionate Mac player, I’m disappointed to have to share this news. We decided to keep the game running after receiving your feedback when we originally announced the sunset plans early last year, but with all of our development aligned towards our upcoming slate of games, we simply cannot justify the resources required to continue to support this version of the game.

Everquest on the PC will not be affected by any of these changes, and it is unlikely that players will be able to move their characters over due to the massive difference in versions. EQMac was never updated past Planes of Power, the fourth expansion released in 2002.

(Source: Announcement)

Did Anyone Notice That FusionFall Shut Down?

That is a rhetorical question. Cartoon Network’s FusionFall originally launched in 2009 with an awesome premise: An MMO set in the Cartoon Network multiverse with well known characters, a rather simple combat and quest system, and the ability to summon nano versions of said cartoon characters. FusionFall originally launched with a subscription, but eventually converted into a free to play game the following April 2010.

In those three years, FusionFall has faded into relative obscurity outside of the Cartoon Network community. Earlier this year, Cartoon Network ceased all development on the title and moved on to FusionFall Heroes, a game set in the same story line but with players taking control of the characters rather than creating their own avatar. To put the icing on the cake, finally, FusionFall shut down on August 29th with all the attention that you would expect from a small flash game, ie: none at all.

And that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Disney Shutting Down Its Less Popular MMOs

Disney appears to be cleaning house with some of their less popular MMOs. The company announced today that both Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean Online will be shutting down on September 19th, just a month away. Both games have already stopped accepting payments and have opened their doors to be played for free until the servers shut down. There wasn’t much of a reason given other than the usual shifting development focus, although the obvious answer is that few people still play Toontown or Pirates Online.

“The Walt Disney Company is committed to offering high-quality, entertaining play experiences in both online virtual worlds and mobile apps. At this time, we are shifting our development focus towards other online and mobile play experiences, such as Club Penguin and a growing selection of Disney mobile apps.”

(Source: Toontown, Pirates)

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