Shut down – Page 8 – MMO Fallout

Turbine Shutting Down Infinite Crisis

Turbine Entertainment has announced the impending sunset of Inifinite Crisis this August. Infinite Crisis exited beta on March 26 of this year, giving the game a shelf life of about 141 days from launch to shut down.

After much deliberation, we regret to announce the official shutdown of Infinite Crisis. We will end development efforts today and will close the service on August 14, 2015.

As the MOBA market continues to expand and saturate itself, it has become much more difficult to find an audience. Infinite Crisis is the second high profile MOBA to shut down this year, after Jagex’s Transformers in January and EA’s Dawngate in February.

(Source: Infinite Crisis)

[Less Massive] Playstation Mobile Shutting Down September 10th

Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that support for Playstation Mobile will be ending later this year. In an email sent out earlier today, customers have been notified that Sony will cease distributing content on the Playstation Mobile app on July 15, with full support for the platform ceasing on September 10th. Content purchased off of the platform will need to be downloaded and installed prior to the September cutoff date, as they will be unavailable after that date.

Refunds will not be provided for lost Playstation Mobile content. Playstation Mobile was an attempt by Sony to provide content to a number of platforms, including Android, Vita, and Playstation TV. The service never took off, even after Sony took steps to reach out to independent developers, including the removal of a license fee in 2013.

(Source: Sony email)

Lord of the Rings Online Says Dasvidaniya To Russia

Russian gamers will be sad to learn that the local Lord of the Rings Online servers will be shutting down on June 1st. Mail.ru, the publisher of Lord of the Rings in Russia, was either unable or unwilling to renew their license with Warner Bros. and as a result the service is coming to an end. To end the game on a high note, players will be able to visit a tavern where they can level up and obtain equipment, talents, and more.

In addition, everything in the cash shop has had its price reduced to one mark, although new player registration and adding money to accounts has already been disabled. Mail.ru is planning on offering bonuses for several of their other games: Allods Online, Perfect World, and Dragon Nest.

(Source: www.lotro-russia.com)

Storybricks Closing Down

Storybricks, the developer behind the AI platform created for Everquest Next, is no more. Last month we learned that Storybricks and Sony Online Entertainment were parting ways, a severance that CEO Rodolfo Rosini now states is of no fault of SOE’s.

It was our own decision and Sony Online Entertainment (now Daybreak Games) bears no fault for it. Sony Online Entertainment had been up for sale for a long time so our exit had no connection with the Columbus Nova acquisition.

Plans to sell the Storybricks tech went sour after a buyer was unable to be found and everyone involved is now working at other companies. Rosini still wants the AI platform to be widely available, and is planning on releasing a few side projects unrelated to Everquest Next in the hopes that those dreams can be realized.

At one point, Storybricks even attempted to buy Sony Online Entertainment, but the deal fell through with Sony Japan due to questionable terms.

Make no mistake the company needed cuts badly, and we would have cut and cut deeply. Possibly as deep as Columbus Nova did but maybe we would have cut more senior management and less game developers instead. It was our intention to try to acquire the 38 Studios assets and made them available to players in EQN. Moreover we would have probably changed the server infrastructure allowing people to run their own servers. It would not have been a very canonical EverQuest but we would have done the best to service our customers with the limited budget of an independent studio who wanted to punch above its weight.

(Source: Storybricks Email)

It’s Official: Massively Is Shutting Down

I owe a lot to Massively and the Joystiq network, seeing as they are one of the bigger news websites to regularly share my content with a wider audience, so it’s sad to see that they will be shutting down on February 3rd. With the small number of mainstream MMO news websites, Massively was the top source for news for myself and likely many of you. It was nice to see a big company like AOL funding the Joystiq network.

The decision, it appears, came from the top echelon of AOL.

We all suspected this was coming eventually a year ago when a VP whose name I don’t even know and who never read our site chose to reward our staggering, hard-won 40% year-over-year page view growth by… hacking our budget in half.

The post hints at the possibility of the Massively team striking out and self-funding their next endeavor. We wish them the best of luck, and by we I mean me.

(Source: Massively)

Blacklight Retribution Devs Close Doors

Blacklight Retribution dev Zombie Studios has announced that they are shutting down after twenty years of developing video games. The company revealed in a post on the main website that the owners have decided to retire and, rather than pass the studio on to new hands, are allowing the company to retire with them.

Luckily this doesn’t mean the death of Zombie Studios properties, which will live on in the form of Builder Box, who will take over the operation of Blacklight Retribution.

(Source: Destructoid)

Transformers Universe Shutting Down January 2015

Jagex has announced that the servers for MOBA Transformers Universe will shut down on January 31st, 2015. The decision was made mutually between the UK developer and Hasbro, and comes on the hilt of both companies realigning their focus for the year ahead.

The shutdown period will begin from today. As part of the winding down we will be refunding all those that have purchased a Founders Pack, as well as anyone that has purchased relic bundles and starter packs. These refunds should be all processed in the next 30 days. In addition we will be closing the ability for new players to make accounts, those of you that already have accounts will continue to be able to use them until the closure date.

Players who do not receive refunds after January 16th should email customer support.

(Source: Transformers Universe)

Update: Microsoft To Blame For Warface Shuttering

Following up on the announcement that Warface would be shutting down its Xbox 360 services, Crytek has come forward to finger Microsoft as the culprit. A representative of Crytek told Game Informer in a statement that the decision to shut the servers down was made by Microsoft, acting publisher of Warface on the Xbox.

“With Microsoft acting as publisher for Warface on Xbox 360, we are bound by their decision to phase out the game on their console.”

The Warface server officially shuts down in February. The PC service remains unaffected.

(Source: Game Informer)

Side Quest Missing: Presumed Dead

It’s really disappointing to see promising games never receive the attention that they deserve, and an unfortunate reality of the environment we live in today. I wrote an early preview of Side Quest where I had a great time playing, but felt as though the game would receive better exposure as a mobile title, where gamers are more adept to the less involved nature of playing. Unfortunately as it goes, sometimes these games just shut down and disappear without a trace. The Side Quest website went down weeks ago and now returns a 404 error.

Since Fractal Entertainment hasn’t updated their Twitter and Facebook since November 2013, I think it’s safe to assume that this one isn’t coming back. Rest in peace, Side Quest, we hardly knew ye.

Rusty Hearts Shutting Down

Perfect World Entertainment has announced that Rusty Hearts will be closing down on September 15th. Starting today, August 4th, it will no longer be possible to download Rusty Hearts and players will be unable to transfer Zen to their characters. Players who have been active during the past thirty days will find any Zen they purchased in the last six months credited to their wallet, which can then be transferred to other Perfect World Entertainment titles.

Rusty Hearts launched three years ago.

(Source: Arc Games)

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It: