It’s that sad time of year when the herd is rounded up and stragglers are culled and designated for the virtual slaughterhouse. And so it is that we say farewell to three online titles this month that fans have enjoyed for years.
Activision announced that it is shutting down Call of Duty’s Warzone Caldera, aka Warzone 1.0, come September 21st in favor of devoting its focus on Warzone 2.0 (which rolled out late last year) instead. The move was immediately met by a strong backlash of fans who preferred the original and didn’t appreciate being strong-armed into playing the sequel and losing all of their paid cosmetics. One player noted that more than 300,000 people were still engaging with Caldera, which is far from a sign of failure.
In other sunset news, Turn 10 announced that it will be shuttering Forza Horizon 1 and 2 in late August: “As these games now have a very small player population, we’ll be closing online services for Forza Horizon 1 and Forza Horizon 2 on August 22nd, 2023 so that we can focus on our most current games. Please note that due to the age of these games and their services, access to online functionality even prior to the official closure date is not guaranteed.”
The studio said that Forza Horizon 3 and 4 will remain online and unaffected by these closures.
