Have you ever heard of Star Wars: Hunters? You would be forgiven for never realizing this game existed before now: This team vs. team shooter first released in June 2024 for mobile devices and the Nintendo Switch, which invited players to the arena on planet Vesparra to “engage in thrilling third person combat to dominate your opponents in a range of adventurous battlegrounds that evoke iconic Star Wars worlds.” Publisher Zynga was eyeing a Steam release in January 2025 and even held a playtest on the platform last December. Obviously that launch didn’t happen, and now the shooter is headed for a sunset this October 1st.
“We understand this news may be disappointing and want to assure you that this decision was not made lightly,” the announcement from Zynga and developer NaturalMotion reads. “Your passion and dedication to the game and its community have meant the world to us, and we are committed to providing visibility and updates throughout the transition process.”
The game’s current fifth season will be extended by three weeks starting on March 25th, followed by the game’s final content update featuring a new support character on April 15th, which also will disengage in-game purchases. After that, the game will be fully playable until the servers go dark in October.
Judging from player reviews on mobile stores and on Reddit, Hunters actually appears to be a pretty well-liked shooter. It would just seem to be that this one has fallen victim to the contracting walls of the live service games market.
