One of the many, many things that is tilted about the video game industry is the willingness – and sometimes necessity – to close or sunset creative titles. Instead of improving the game to be “worth more money” they are often shut down in favor of existing game titles that make more money. Yes, big-budget games can’t exist without a return-on-investment, of course. I also know that sometimes it’s just the right decision for XYZ reason (elapsed time, studio bought out/dismantled, etc.). Still, it sucks that it happens; whether the decision is just or not. I’m going to muse over some examples of games I enjoyed that have been closed or sunset. These are just a few that I can think of off-hand, but I will enshrine a static page to list more over time.
Let’s start with a basic example. Fractured Space is a space combat game developed by Edge Case Games that sets up a 5v5 format with capital ships that push lanes akin to a moba. This game was never massively popular, but it got a lot of attention from news outlets for a little while and showed great promise. Not the most fun I’ve had playing space combat games, but it had its own style that wasn’t easy to find elsewhere. Aiming capital ship weapons and abilities at other ships gave a good feeling of tactics, alongside coordinating with your teammates. The ships felt like massive hulks when driven, as capital ships ought to feel. Having lots of crew options was fun to work with as well. In October 2018, Fractured Space was sunset without explanation as to why. In my observation, the game’s general unpopularity was largely due to poor marketing/advertising and a disproportionate design of the game (not enough focus on the core gameplay loop which was too niche/stale).
Happy Wars is a bit of a different situation, in that it’s not entirely closed down at the time of this posting. Originally developed by Toylogic, it is still available for Xbox One, but all other platforms including the one I played on (Steam) have been discontinued for a few years. It’s a fun and cute cartoony combat game where you can give your character various attire to use in battles between two teams of little medieval fighters and mages. I had a blast playing it from time to time. I happened to miss a short window where account migration was allowed, so I would have had to start over on my account even if I had an Xbox One at the time. I think this was more of a consolidation thing than anything else, but it still sucks to no longer be able to play unless I have exactly one specific console.
Next up we have Nosgoth, a game that I keep feeling like I wasn’t that big a fan of, yet always felt a strange draw towards. This game is based in the Legacy of Kain universe, though it is largely just about PvP combat rather than story. To oversimplify, it’s a sort of asymmetrical team game where one set of players are human hunters and another set of players are vampires. Many fans of LoK were unhappy with the 2013 reveal, as LoK is known and beloved for its single-player and story focus. Ultimately, I think the game had a ton of potential but was mired by Square Enix’s poor decisions as a publisher. Fun fact: This game was developed by Psyonix, creators of the now-famous Rocket League. Sadly, this beautiful take on team arena PVP didn’t make it past open-beta status. I am still a little upset that Psyonix couldn’t continue development, as I think their talent goes well beyond pretty customization options for RC-style cars. Nosgoth barely lasted a year and a half (2015-2016). I think I still have a small amount of footage somewhere..
For now I’ll end with Paragon – a wonderfully creative take on moba design. The main change here was the use of realistic graphics instead of cartoony ones seen in League of Legends or DotA2, as well as a camera shift down to the surface as a 3rd-person game instead of aerial-cam. The characters were fun and unique, and the abilities felt good on the characters. The card system was fun for building the character over the course of a match. Honestly it felt like a better take on what Heroes of the Storm tried to be. Paragon was developed by EpicGames and, like Nosgoth, barely lasted a year and a half in open beta. This was before Epic decided to be a full-on publisher, and I worry that Paragon’s lack of popularity drove Epic to focus less on development of their established IPs as well as try out new things like Paragon.
Fun fact: Epic actually diverted some Fortnite development resources in favor of Paragon, before resources for Paragon were again reduced for the launch of Fortinte’s impending “Battle Royale” game mode craze in 2017. Can you imagine them diverting Fortnite resources today – right as they incite a disgusting imitation of a social justice war with Apple and Google over Fortnite’s monetization on their platforms? Things certainly have changed.