At 4:20 a.m. EST this morning, Kakao and XL Games announced that Moonlight Sculptor’s global servers are set for demolition in multiple regions just two months from now.
“Despite the fun we’ve had, it has become necessary to make the difficult decision to terminate the live service of Moonlight Sculptor on Europe, North America and Asia servers. We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has supported Moonlight Sculptor and we hope that you have enjoyed playing it as much as we have enjoyed servicing it. Please note that the service termination will take effect on May 4th, and you will no longer be able to download or access the game or your account information after this date.”
The studio is promising a trio of end-times events (yet to be announced); in-app purchases have already been disabled, though the in-game shop will stay up for now. Refunds are being granted if you bought anything since February 27th, though it won’t be automatic – you’ll have to actually submit a ticket.
If it seems like the game was only around a short time, well, you’re right; it was announced for the west less than two years ago and hit mobile devices on May 25th, 2021, meaning it won’t even have made it to two years by the time it sunsets. It was billed as an “immersive light novel” but it was a standard mobile MMO with dungeons, PvP, life skills, and offline leveling. Though it soared to 1M downloads in the weeks after launch, it was merging servers by the end of its first summer and updates slowed down, with its last major patch coming back in December.
Our sympathies to the players and developers affected by the sunset.
