It’s true that we lost a lot of MMOs in 2016 — bigger and more important ones than in 2014 and 2015. 2017, however, has been a different sort of beast. The list is long, and while it’s painful for those whose games are gone, the genre didn’t lose many major MMOs this past year. And that startles me.
Marvel Heroes was surely the most dramatic of all the sunsets, given that it shut down early without notice. Earlier in the year, we saw Daybreak put an end to Landmark after less than a year of live operation, while Turbine let the Asheron’s Call franchise go, Firefall formally closed, Club Penguin’s sunset broke the internet, and NCsoft called it quits with Master X Master. A number of other MMOs simply halted development –Â Perpetuum, Sword Coast Legends, and SkySaga being the most prominent of those. And on a more positive note, there were a few sunsetted MMOs that were revivified, including Otherland, Uncharted Waters Online, and RaiderZ.
Farewell, old friends.
Digital card game SolForge calls it quits
Landmark is shutting down on February 21
HeroWarz plans a year-long shutdown
The Daily Grind: What defunct MMO would you like to play that you never tried?
EverQuesting: The loss of Landmark
Closers Online shuts down in Japan, moves over to Taiwan
Turbine clarifies Asheron’s Call sunset times
Disney’s Club Penguin to close down in March to make way for its sequel
SolForge gets a stay of execution thanks to Grinding Gear Games developers
Recapping the Asheron’s Call sunsets
Valve sunsets Steam Greenlight, proposes dev submission fees to ‘decrease the noise’
Neverwinter is sunsetting in China
The Stream Team: Landmark’s sunset stream
Devs and players say farewell to Landmark and the last remnants of EverQuest Next
Dean Hall’s space sandbox MMO Ion is dead
Disney’s Club Penguin has sunsetted, replaced by Club Penguin Island
War of Genesis 4 heads off to the MMO retirement farm
Phantasy Star Online 2 will shut down in Southeast Asia on May 26
Star Trek Online announces the end of STO Gateway
Runescape Idle Adventures is shutting down on May 15
Emil Chronicle Online closes its last server
The Soapbox: Your favorite MMO is going to die
PSA: Final Fantasy XIV ends service on the PlayStation 3 on June 16
Firefall will officially sunset tomorrow
MMOs you’ve never heard of: Terra Mango, Royal Blood, and The Tomorrow Children
MMOs you’ve never heard of: Mad World, XAOC, and Moirai
Nexon kills top-secret Nebula project, closes studio
GTA-esque MMO CrimeCraft will sunset at the end of August
Ghost in the Shell Online services to close in Japan
Otherland is revived on Steam as Drago takes over publishing duties
SkySaga shuts down production and goes on hold indefinitely
Ghost in the Shell Online will close on December 6 in North America
Why you should care that Nintendo’s social network Miiverse sunsets in November
Cloud Pirates is sunsetting at the end of September
Perpetuum ends active development, eyes private servers
Exploration MMO Wander quietly died and almost no one noticed
Dragon Nest NA operator takes over SEA branch
Raptr is shutting down on September 30th
EverQuest II fan news site EQ2Wire is closing its doors
Battleborn’s updates come to an end after its next patch
SkySaga locks down official site following development halt, posts ‘nothing can be said for certain’
Hawken will sunset its PC Steam servers in January 2018, but not console servers
Farewell to My.com MOBA Cloud Pirates, which sunsetted over the weekend
Uncharted Waters Online relaunches today
Digital Extremes halts development on The Amazing Eternals
Amazon may have already canceled Breakaway
Amazon confirms that Breakaway is on hiatus
DC Universe Online is shutting down PlayStation 3 support in 2018
Kritika Online is sunsetting in Southeast Asia
Asta Online prepares to shut its doors… again
Masangsoft casts rez on RaiderZ
Disney has canceled Marvel Heroes, Marvel has ended its relationship with Gazillion
NCsoft is already sunsetting MOBA Master X Master
Phantasy Star Online 2 website quietly shutters
Gazillion is dead and Marvel Heroes is shutting down Friday, NOT at the end of the year
The Stream Team: The last Marvel Heroes hurrah?
The Stream Team: A Cosmic Trial final farewell to Marvel Heroes
The Daily Grind: Is an MMO’s shutdown announcement better or worse than shutdown suspicions?
RIP Marvel Heroes
Demon’s Souls ends online services after nine years of operation
The Daily Grind: Did Marvel Heroes just get the worst-managed MMORPG sunset of all time?
Sword Coast Legends ends development – grab it from Steam while you can
Dungeon & Fighter: Spirit shuts down in South Korea
