End of an era: Adobe is killing off Shockwave

Adobe is punting its Shockwave player into the dustbin, where it will eventually reside with Flash, the company announced. In doing so, an era of the web that predates the widespread use of HTML5 comes to an end.

"Effective April 9, 2019, Adobe Shockwave will be discontinued and the Shockwave player for Windows will no longer be available for download. Companies with existing Enterprise licenses for Adobe Shockwave continue to receive support until the end of their current contracts," Adobe said.

This move was a long time coming. Adobe had already retired its Director authoring tool for Shockwave content in February 2017, followed by kicking the Shockwave player for macOS to the curb a month later.

Like Flash, which Adobe previously announced would finally be discontinued in 2020, Shockwave powered many of the interactive experiences on the web during the early 2000s. Both technologies were developed by Macromedia, which Adobe acquired in 2005.

They're also casualties of a more modern web that is powered by HTML5. As our friends at TechRadar explain, HTML5 was designed to do just about everything anyone would want to do on the web, without required plugins. HTML5 also has the advantage of not being proprietary.

"As technologies evolve and the use of mobile devices has grown, interactive content has moved to platforms such as HTML5 Canvas and Web GL and usage of Shockwave has declined," Adobe said.

While support is generally coming to an end next month, Adobe said it will continue to support customers with EULA distribution licensing until the end of their 1-year contracts.

Thanks, Gizmodo

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).