All the big games that shut down in 2022

2022 saw a number of high-profile games closed forever, some of them after years of successful operation, and others after months of struggle. It's the nature of online games: Nothing lasts forever, and especially not modern live service games that wither away if they don't make enough money to fund their servers. The end of some of these games left us feeling nostalgic, while others were greeted with complete indifference—sometimes, we'd forgotten their names long before the axe fell.

Still, there's a certain sadness in just about every case of a shuttered game. It's easy for us to judge, but every videogame that makes it to launch represents someone's hopes, dreams, ambitions, and best efforts: They poured their heart and soul into bringing it to life, and now that life is over. Which isn't to say they're all good, and at least one or two of the games in this remembrance were definitely not. But somebody, somewhere believed in all of them enough to give them a chance at glory. 

Here, presented in the order in which their closures were announced, is a look at some of the games that went away for good in 2022:

Hyper Scape

Hyper Scape - Shutdown date April 28, 2022

Ubisoft's futuristic battle royale Hyper Scape is probably the best example of "forgotten before it was gone." A few months after launching in August 2020, Ubisoft acknowledged that Hyper Scape wasn't great and set about making changes, but it was never able to get traction in a world already dominated by Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone. 

America's Army

America's Army - Shutdown date May 5, 2022

The polar opposite of Hyper Scape, America's Army ran in various guises for an astounding 20 years, during which time it was remarkably successful at convincing directionless young men to be all that they could be. Its unseemly role as propaganda didn't make it a bad tactical shooter, though, which may explain its remarkable longevity (and, no doubt, its success as a recruiting tool). The good news for dedicated adherents is that while servers were shuttered in May, private servers, the mission editor, and other offline features continue to function.

Survarium

Survarium - Shutdown date May 31, 2022

The Stalker-like online shooter Survarium had a remarkable run of seven years, which is doubly fun because throughout that time it never left early access. Developer Vostok Games said in the closure announcement that "a new chapter awaits," but the studio hasn't yet announced what it's getting up to. Its website says it is now hiring for "a triple-A shooter game based on a new ambitious IP," but it may be a while before that project gets underway in earnest. Some members of the Ukrainian studio were forced to flee the city of Kyiv following the second Russian invasion that began in February.

Heroes of Newerth

Heroes of Newerth - Shutdown date June 20, 2022

Even after it was ultimately muscled out by League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth maintained enough of an audience to keep it around for more a decade. But in December 2021, developer Frostburn announced that the end was nigh, and in June of this year it finally went away for good.

Tera

Tera - shutdown date June 30, 2022

We published our first preview of the fantasy MMO Tera all the way back in 2010, and while it didn't knock our socks off when we gave it a full review a couple years later, it continued to expand, grow, and improve over the years into a well-respected MMO. But developer Bluehole announced in April that it wanted to move on to other things, and so publisher Gameforge pulled the plug. YouTuber The Game Archivist recorded the final few minutes, as hundreds of players came together to say goodbye:

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Project Cars 1 and 2

Project Cars 2 - Shutdown date September 21, 2022 Project Cars - Shutdown date October 3, 2022

Project Cars and Project Cars 2, two of the best racing games ever to grace the PC, were removed from Steam this year because of "expiring car and track licenses." It's yet another example of the downside of "authenticity": Licensing rights for real-world products don't exist in perpetuity, and when the licensing deal expires, a choice must be made to renew or let it go. And if sales aren't likely to justify the expense—which is all but certainly going to be the case for niche, years-old driving sims—then the deal will be left to lapse. People who already own the game will continue to have access to it, but anyone who missed out is out of luck.

The news got even worse a month later: Electronic Arts, which acquired Project Cars developer Slightly Mad Studios in 2019, pulled the plug on the whole series in November. 

Overwatch

Overwatch - Shutdown date October 3, 2022

Overwatch isn't really gone, it's just been superseded by Overwatch 2, which is basically just Overwatch 1.5. Still, it's a pretty big deal, and it left a number of PC Gamer editors sad for the loss and wary of the future. And also confused by Blizzard's approach to the transition to the new game, which has been weird at best. As print editor Robin Valentine wrote in our extended Overwatch obituary: "How badly do you have to screw up a PR campaign for the overwhelming atmosphere around the launch of your new game to be one of mourning for the previous one?"

Warhammer 40,000: Regicide

Warhammer 40,000: Regicide - Shutdown date October 14, 2022

Chess, the Warhammer way

Unlike most of the games on this list, Warhammer 40,000: Regicide just pulled the ripcord and was gone. A reason wasn't given, although it had been around for seven years, which is a pretty decent run as these things go. The good news is that Regicide remains playable offline—the bad news is that the offline campaign, we said in our 70% review, is "the weakest part of Regicide." Fortunately for fans, there are literally dozens of other WH40K games out there. 

Crowfall

Crowfall - Shutdown date November 22, 2022

Just a year after going live, the crowdfunded MMO Crowfall shut down for a most unusual reason: To save the game. Developer Monumental said it was necessary to take the game offline so it could focus on development rather than live operations. There was, and is, not a hint as to when Crowfall will return. Developers said only that they will "share the plan with the community as it shapes up."

Super Bomberman R Online

Super Bomberman R Online - Shutdown date December 1, 2022

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The Bomberman series is forever (probably), but Konami announced the end of this particular part of it in June, after a year and a half of low player numbers, which contributed significantly to a "mixed" user rating on Steam. The end of Super Bomberman R Online came on December 1, providing yet more evidence that maybe not everything needs to be a battle royale.

Scavengers

Scavengers - Shutdown date December 16, 2022

The PvPvE shooter Scavengers made it a year and a half before the end was announced in November. We actually found a lot to like in the game, but like so many games, it failed to find a viable audience, a situation that was likely exacerbated by the sale of developer Midwinter to Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive. In the end, Scavengers, like some of the other games on this list, never made it out of early access before the end came on December 16.

Fuser

Fuser - Shutdown date December 19, 2022

We liked Harmonix's DJ rhythm game Fuser quite a bit when it launched in 2020, but just two years later it's gone for good. Harmonix didn't specify a reason for the closure, but the numbers on Steam were not great. Fuser managed a peak concurrent player count of just 837 in November 2020, according to Steam Charts, and it's been mired in double-digit concurrent player counts since May 2021; its peak concurrent player count over the past 30 days is just 34. Fuser is also available on the Epic Games Store and consoles, so that doesn't tell the whole tale, but it does point toward an overall lack of interest, especially compared to Harmonix's earlier genre-defining work on Guitar Hero and Rock Band. 

Babylon's Fall

Babylon's Fall - Shutdown date February 23, 2023

Babylon's Fall lasted 194 days before Platinum Games decided it had seen enough and threw in the towel amid "mostly negative" user reviews on Steam and a 46 aggregate score on Metacritic. The only thing of note it accomplished in its brief life was to provide impetus for this absolutely chef's-kiss line from news writer Mollie Taylor: "Babylon's fallen and it can't get up."

And a special case: Stadia

Literally every Stadia game, along with the whole service - Shutdown date January 18, 2023

In July, Google denied a rumor that its game streaming platform Stadia was closing. In September, Google announced that its game streaming platform Stadia is closing. It was probably inevitable, given the slow bleed-out of the past couple years (and the fact that Google never really seemed committed to making Stadia work in the first place) but even so, it was honestly a bit of a shock when the bottom fell out, especially since Google had flat-out denied a shutdown rumor just two months earlier. The actual shutdown is slated to happen on January 18, 2023, but we'll always have this absolutely incomprehensible launch trailer to remind us of what might have been.

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