Refusing to sell out to publishers.
Continue reading “Chronicles of Elyria Is Dead, Everyone Laid Off”
Category: Defunct
Paycheck: City RPG Shut Down In Under Two Months
Role playing game loses bank and fails to gain interest.
Continue reading “Paycheck: City RPG Shut Down In Under Two Months”
MapleStory 2 Sunsets Services May 27
Guardians of Ember Is Shutting Down Again
Guardians of Ember is the game that just would not survive. Guardians of Ember, who MMO Fallout readers might remember when original publisher Insel Games was booted off of Steam, is shutting down once again. The last time around Insel Games managed to get Guardians of Ember removed from Steam by manipulating reviews. This time it appears to be good old difference of opinion.
Gameforge took over publication back in January 23, 2019 and it looks like after a year’s probationary period Runewaker is no longer interested in working with them.
So what led to Gameforge losing the rights to Guardians of Ember? Only Gameforge and Runewaker know for sure, but we’re willing to bet it has to do with the gross mismanagement of the relaunch with Gameforge failing to secure replacement on Steam even one year later.
Is this the end for Guardians of Ember? There is always hope of Runewaker finding a new publisher or self-publishing. Tomorrow is another day.
Source: Twitter
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
Astellia Online Already Shutting Down In Korea
Astellia Online is shutting down in its native home of Korea. The southern one.
Nexon has announced the sunset of Astellia Online in Korea with servers set to shut down on Thursday January 16, 2020. The website is a little tough to read given Google’s automatic translation tools but it looks like limited refunds will be available to customers going back sometime through this year. Astellia Online launched about a year ago in Korea and was published by Nexon. The western launch was self-published by the game’s developer Barunson.
The news has the western Astellia audience concerned about an impending sunset in our territory, as player estimates show that the western population isn’t doing so well either. People have also raised questions about the impending Russian launch as pre-order packages have gone on sale.
Source: Astellia
Fallen Earth Is Dead, But May Return
Fallen Earth is celebrating its ten year anniversary with the announcement that the servers are coming down. It isn’t the way most companies want to celebrate their game growing old, but the unfortunate reality is that the game is just unsustainable in its current form. As Matt Scott, CEO of Little Orbit stated:
I’m sad to announce that effective 10/2 (or there about based on when the event goes live), we will be taking the Fallen Earth servers offline. Unfortunately after weeks of monitoring things and getting players feedback, I have determined the current state of Fallen Earth just isn’t sustainable in its current form. You guys have been very tolerant, but the player experience is terrible right now. It’s laggy and buggy. Servers crash quite often, and stacking is still disabled due to exploits. I don’t blame the player base for the low concurrency numbers. You need a better game to play.
The silver lining on this cloud is that Little Orbit would like to update and bring Fallen Earth back online at some point.
Source: Fallen Earth Forums
Whatever Happened To: Hello Kitty Online (Again!)
Hello Kitty Online. It can’t have been too long since I last updated everyone on what is going on with this quirky little game for kids who absolutely do not view this website. But Connor, I hear you shout into your computer, if you bothered to check your own post history once in a while you’d notice that you haven’t written about Hello Kitty Online since 2013!
So chalk this one up as another ball that MMO Fallout dropped. Hello Kitty Online isn’t the kind of game I would normally cover here at MMO Fallout, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the game has been offline for two years and I think only PC Gamer and MMOBomb have noticed that the game has been offline for the better part of the past two years. It’s not surprising as Sanrio had stopped supporting the title way back in 2012 and it looks like they just let the game drift off into the distance until 2017 when the servers went offline and never came back up.
Here’s to Hello Kitty Online. You snuck out the back door and very few noticed.
Bless Online Goes Offline September 9
Among the splendor of the E3 game reveals, Neowiz has announced that Bless Online will be shutting down in the west as of September 9. The title launched into early access on Steam one year ago in June 2018 to a respectable peak of 28,000 players but players very quickly jumped ship due to a number of issues ranging from prevalent botting to balance problems and performance on even the best of gaming PCs. By the following month, the peak count had dropped by 80% and it never quite recovered.
To send the game off, Neowiz is launching a bonus experience event starting June 10th and running until sunset time for those of you who want to grind out some Steam achievements before the servers go offline forever.
Starting after server maintenance on June 10th, 2019 and until September 8th, 2019 23:59 Dungeons wants to be removed, and the Dungeon drop rates will be increased. Players want to see a 100% increase in Gathering / Mining EXP, Guild EXP, Dungeon Points, and Combat Points. Gathering, Mining, and Crafting speeds will be increased by 50%.
Despite Bless failing in virtually every territory it has launched in, Neowiz plans on releasing a version on the Xbox One under the name Bless Unleashed.
Source: Steam
Atlas Reactor No Longer Sustainable, Will Shut Down
Trion World’s title Atlas Reactor will sunset on June 28, 2019. The title was launched in 2016 under Trion Worlds and transferred along with Trion’s other assets to Gamigo when the company suddenly shut down last year.
Mervin Lee Kwai, Vice President of Development at gamigo and a former Executive Producer: “Atlas Reactor was a truly innovative game built by a passionate group of highly skilled developers. I was lucky enough to watch our team breathe life into the world of Atlas on a daily basis. They broke the mold of same-y games, and a dedicated community rallied around the title. Despite the support of this great group of fans, Atlas Reactor never grew big enough to fund its continued development. It’s a shame to see this chapter come to a close, but perhaps we’ll have a chance to revisit the innovative spirit of Atlas in the future.”
As part of the shut down, players who logged in between January 1 and April 16 will receive a small parting gift. The cash shop has been shut down and experience, flux, and ISO rates have been boosted dramatically for the duration of the game’s life.
Source: Atlas Reactor
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