A few weeks back, I asked you about the most painful sunset of 2024. That’s not what I mean today! I mean the worst-managed sunset and/or sunset announcement. I was inspired when I stumbled into a clip of this old conversation Chris and I had in work chat over an MMO whose server merge press release was so badly mangled that it actually accidentally announced a region sunset (there wasn’t actually a region sunset).
It’s that last line that actually inspired me here because yes, I was joking, but only because I have literally seen MMOs do this – announce they’re pausing development or closing the servers indefinitely or whatever to the 10 people they have in a Discord, and it doesn’t make it out of that Discord until someone stumbles by half a year later.
But I have to say the Marvel Heroes sunset and everything around it was a thousand times worse. Even at the time we literally called it the “worst-managed MMORPG sunset of all time,” thanks to the clownfoolery of Gazillion, Marvel, and Disney, as they screwed up the closure, refunds, and even the date of the sunset itself. It was literally laid-off devs telling players what was really happening when the corporations failed. It’s actually wild to me that this happened with one of the most lucrative IPs on the planet.
Has it been topped? Or at least, has anything else come close? What was the worst-managed MMO sunset of all time?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
