Category: Defunct

Perfect World Entertainment To Shutter War of the Immortals/Battle of the Immortals


War is immortal, unless of course you’re referring to Perfect World Entertainment’s War of the Immortals which is one hundred percent mortal. Perfect World today announced that two titles in its library will be shutting down next week, those being War of the Immortals and Battle of the Immortals. Both titles have been in operation for six years and will close down as of January 9 when the servers go down for good.

All payments from September 1 through December 14 will be credited back to your Arc account.

All WOI payments from September 1st, 2017 through December 14th, 2017 @ 11 AM PT will be converted into Arc credit and allocated to your account. These credits can be used in any of the other PWE games. Arc Points between this same time period will also be refunded to your account.

There was no official reason given for the shutdown, however activity on the forum would seem to indicate that this may be a standard case of low traffic/revenue.

(Source: Battle, War)

NCSoft Shuts Down Master x Master


NCSoft has announced that its MOBA title Master x Master will shut down in January. Master x Master launched in June of this year and never made much of a blip on NCSoft’s financial radar, certainly not enough to even warrant a mention on their quarterly reports. In fact, an investor might have gone the entire cycle without realizing that the game had ever existed.

With the service set to shut down on January 31, NCSoft has put the following changes into effect:

  • All players will receive 500,000 X-Coin to unlock all content
  • The community-developed Lua skin will be made available to all players for 1 X-Coin
  • Real money purchases on the MXM Store will be permanently disabled
  • All game modes will be turned on, and available at all times
  • Refunds in full on purchases made between Aug. 30 and Nov. 16. This will happen automatically within the next 7-14 days, and will be refunded via the same method the purchase was made, if possible. For additional refund specifics please refer to our FAQ.

(Source; NCSoft)

Marvel Dooms Its Heroes: Marvel Heroes to Shut Down


A representative from Marvel has confirmed that the company has ended its licencing relationship with Gazillion Entertainment, and that Marvel Heroes will officially shut down in the near future. Marvel Heroes initially launched in 2013 on PC, and most recently on the PS4 and Xbox.

Rumors of turbulence within the company have been swirling around for months, including allegations of sexual misconduct by the current CEO. Some saw the writing on the wall when Gazillion went silent for weeks regarding future development plans.

The statement by Marvel is as follows:

“We regret to inform our Marvel Heroes fans that we have ended our relationship with Gazillion Entertainment, and that the Marvel Heroes games will be shut down. We would like to sincerely thank the players who joined the Marvel Heroes community, and will provide any further updates as they become available.”

No time table for the shutdown has been given at this time.

Asta La Vista: Asta Online Servers To Shut Down


Following its re-launch in April this year, Asta Online developer Polygon Games has announced that the title will shut down next month. Players are asked to contact Steam in regards to any refund requests over in-game items. The termination notice has been pasted below for brevity.

[Service termination notice]
? Termination date : 8th Dec(Fri), 2017
? Detail : Service termination of ASTA Online
? Reference
– In-game purchase has been closed at 01:00 AM(ASTA server time), 9th Nov(Thur)
and players are no longer able to purchase cash items.

(Source: Steam)

Battleborn Ceasing Development Support After Fall Update


As they say, all good things must come to an end, and they also say that development costs money and money doesn’t grow on trees. Gearbox Software has announced that this fall’s update to Battleborn will be the last. The fall update was announced at PAX and includes new skins, map and balance tweaks, as well as new boosts and taunts.

But never fear, those of you who actually bought this game and intend on continuing to play it. The servers for Battleborn will not be going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

Never fear! Battleborn is here to stay. Nothing is changing with Battleborn, and the servers will be up and active for the foreseeable future. We announced the Fall Update for the game at PAX including some new skins, themed around some of your favorite Borderlands characters! That update will also include some updated title art (more full bar titles!) for the more significant challenges in the game, as well as some additional Finisher Boosts and Taunts. Also, there are minor balance changes in that patch.

Creative director Randy Varnell has moved on to new projects, likely including Borderlands 3, which 90% of the Gearbox staff is currently working on. Battleborn launched in May 2016 and got lost in the midst of Overwatch’s massive overtaking of first person shooters. On Saturday night, the game peaked at 106 players on PC.

(Source: Battleborn)

Mark Laidlaw Reveals Half Life 2: Episode 3 Plot


With the launch of Duke Nukem Forever now more than half a decade behind us, Half Life 2: Episode 3 (or Half Life 3 depending on who you ask) has taken the throne as the king of vaporware. Initially announced in 2006, the next episode in the Half Life 2 series, which Valve ironically moved to an episodic format to avoid long development delays, has been in limbo with nary a shred of evidence that the developer is actually working on said title.

While Valve has been silent on their development plans for Half Life, one thing that the company cannot hide is that its Half Life writers are jumping ship. Over the past two years, at least four big writers have left the company: Eric Wolpaw, Chet Faliszek, Mark Laidlaw, and Jay Pinkkerton.

Mark Laidlaw, evidently not content with his story being lost to the Valve offices forever, recently posted a “fan fiction” story titled “Epistle 3” on his blog. The blog post is from the perspective of a “Gertie Fremont,” discussing the death of “Elly Vaunt” and heading to the antarctic with Alex Vaunt to find the Hyperborea. The story is a clear nod toward Half Life 2, with events detailed that have leaked out through interviews and documents over the years.

In Laidlaw’s story, Freeman and Alex go north to find the Aurora Borealis, a ship created by Aperture Science (thinking with Portals) that can phase in and out of existence and time. The duo comes across Dr. Breen who had transferred his consciousness to a Combine slug, now regretting his decision and wishing for death. They take over the Borealis and plot to crash it into the Combine homeworld, when the illusive Gman shows up and pulls Alex out to rescue her.

Gordon, meanwhile, remains on board the ship to realize that the plan is destined to fail, as the Combine power is too great. He is rescued at the last second by the Vortigaunt, setting the game up for a possible sequel. Gordon wakes up on shore, not knowing where he is or how much time has passed, or even if the resistance won. The story ends on a somewhat chilling note,

“Expect no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final epistle.”

The last full game to be developed by Valve was released in 2012, with much of the company’s focus being on maintaining Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, and Counter Strike: GO, as well as its various investments in competitive gaming tournaments, VR, and the Steam marketplace. More story-driven titles including Half Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead have sat neglected for the better part of the last decade.

As time goes on, the hopes for Valve wrapping up the Half Life series have understandably faltered. Valve remains silent, writers from the series are leaving, the voice actor for Dr. Breen passed away, and leaks from the company suggest that all attempts to revive the sequel have ultimately died off and gone nowhere. Valve is currently working on several VR titles, and the flat structure ensures that anyone can start working on Half Life as soon as they feel like it. So will they?

It feels less likely as they years tick on.

Crimecraft Shutting Down August 31


Mayn Games has announced that Crimecraft: Gang Wars will shut down on August 31. Crimecraft launched in August 2009 with a box price, subscription fee, and in-game sponsored ads (in the form of billboards for Best Buy, Napster, etc) to boot. Barely two months out, and following financial woes at Vogster Entertainment, Crimecraft dropped the mandatory subscription and box price, choosing instead to go for a unlimited trial with optional bonus subscriptions.

Despite a poor launch, Crimecraft was able to launch two expansions, Bleedout and Gang Wars, before Vogster handed the game over to Mayn Games in 2012. Since then the game has faded into relative obscurity, its charts showing a population plummeting to an average of about 10 players at any given time on Steam. Crimecraft’s population issues similarly weren’t helped by the game not being compatible with Windows 10.

For the past years, we did our best to support the game and make players to enjoy it. It was a very hard choice to make, but despite the overwhelming support of our loyal players, this was the way it had to go. We are grateful to all players for continued support of the game.

(Source: Mayn Games)

Red5 Studios Gives 24 Hours Notice: Firefall To Shut Down


Red 5 Studios today unveiled the announcement that should surprise few: Firefall is finally closing down its servers. Firefall has been in limbo for a long time between the staff being laid off, server outages, and a total lack of development, at some point the game completely stopped functioning past a certain point with graphics card firmware which remained unpatched. There were plans at one point to port Firefall to the Playstation 4 which quietly fizzled out, there was more than one instance of Red5 being unable to fulfill payroll, and the Chinese cashmire company that owns Red5 became effectively worthless.

With heavy hearts, we regret to inform you that after much review and analysis, Red 5 Studios have decided to suspend the Firefall efforts on 7th, July 2017. Thank you for being an important part of the Firefall experience and for your loyalty and dedication to the online community.

Your efforts and loyalty will not go without recognition, however. Firefall is currently developing a mobile version of the game and all of Firefall’s founders and players will be rewarded greatly in the new game. We will be sure to provide everyone with more updates as we have them.

Thank you for your support and enthusiasm throughout the years; we will see you at the next battle.

MMO Fallout listed Firefall shutting down as one of our 2017 predictions.

Firefall will first announce that the console version is cancelled before revealing that the PC version is shutting down either simultaneously or a week or two later. Nobody will be surprised, however the last few hours will draw in a lot of people to watch the world burn.

(Source: Red5)

Pixelmage Games Closing, Hero’s Song Shutting Down


Following its Indiegogo campaign failing to draw in half of the intended goal, Pixelmage Games has announced the cancellation of Hero’s Song and the closure of the studio itself. Players who funded the game on Indiegogo and Steam can receive refunds either through Steam or by contacting Pixelmage at the address on the official website.

The announcement cites low sales but thanks backers for their support.

It’s with a heavy heart that I have to report that Pixelmage Games is going to be shutting down and we have ceased development on Hero’s Song. For the last year, our team has worked tirelessly to make the game we’ve dreamed about making, and with your support, and the support of our investors, we were able to get the game into Early Access. Unfortunately sales fell short of what we needed to continue development. We knew going in that most startups don’t make it, and as an indie game studio we hoped we would be the exception to that rule, but as it turned out we weren’t.

Pixelmage Games was founded by ex-Daybreak Game Company (previously Sony Online Entertainment) President John Smedley. Hero’s Song was supposed to be a sandbox MMO where players would create their own worlds with unique, generated histories.

Webzen Will Be Shuttering ELOA, ASTA This Year


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Webzen has announced that two of its titles will be shutting down by the end of this year. First on the plate is ASTA Online, which will be taken offline October 4th. Beginning this week, the cash shop has officially closed and players will be able to utilize 100% boosts to experience, fame, and drops if they wish to continue playing until the service shuts down. All purchases from the past month will be reimbursed.

Many of you followed us all the way from IBT, to OBT, to multiple expansions, and your support made us believe we could succeed. Sadly, we were wrong. The players we have are awesome, and any company would be happy to have such a dedicated community, but sadly the recent player numbers are not sufficient for us to be able to continue the service. So, after discussions with Polygon Games, we have agreed that the game servers will close on the 4th of October.

Second on the chopping block is Elite Lord of Alliance, which will sunset further along. Similar to ASTA, the cash shop will close and all purchases from the last 30 days will be compensated.

Since official launch, we have been working hard to build a strong community 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.

More details can be found at each game’s respective website.

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