The final moments of Wildstar

It feels like only yesterday that enthusiasm for Wildstar was at fever pitch. The action MMO attracted a great deal of pre-release hype, and Phil's review was pretty glowing. "Clever questing and a stand-out combat system make for an entertaining MMO that's as large as it is full of character," he wrote back in 2014.

News broke in September of 2018 that the Carbine Studios developed MMO would close on November 28 (or November 29 in Australia), along with the studio. When it happened, as you'd expect, enduring fans of the game marked the occasion on reddit. They might have done on the official Wildstar website too, but I can't confirm since that's also been shut down.

This video, uploaded by YouTube user Paul Buckley, shows one person's perspective of the closing minute. During the video a Realm Broadcast reads the following: "This is your friendly reminder of TOTAL DESTRUCTION in 5 minutes. We hope that you have enjoyed your stay and accomplished your dreams, here on planet Nexus."

User kaossverige uploaded this video of "one last Wildstar conga". As you can see, the art style was really something.

It's always a sad moment when an MMO closes: communities and friendships blossom in these worlds, and due to their always online nature, there's no real way to retain or archive the experiences they provided. You can watch similar closing moments for Asheron's Call and Planetside.

On Twitter, the official Wildstar account said the following: "As of November 28 at 2pm PST, the North American and European WildStar game service has closed. Thank you to everyone who joined us on this grand adventure across the Nexus."

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.