Short-lived
The video game industry is full of success stories, and also tales of struggle. The latest example of the latter came from developer Wildlight’s free-to-play shooter Highguard. The game had a high-profile showing at The Game Awards, but faced an uphill battle in terms of sentiment for a number of reasons.
Highguard officially launched in late January 2026, and while it had a strong start in terms of player numbers, the momentum didn’t last. In mid-February, Wildlight laid off most of the staff, and on March 3, the company announced what many had predicted: Highguard was closing for good after less than two months.
But is the Highguard situation unprecedented? Let’s look back at other games that have launched and closed unexpectedly quickly, or otherwise been forced to make a major pivot with its business model.
Highguard
Developer Wildlight’s free-to-play shooter Highguard attracted 2 million players and reached nearly 100,000 peak concurrent users on Steam alone upon launch in late January 2026. However, Wildlight was unable to sustain the momentum, and on March 3, the studio announced that the game’s servers would close for good on March 12, 2026.
This result was not totally unexpected. After all, Wildlight enacted mass layoffs shortly after launch, reportedly due to Tencent pulling funding after the game’s launch and subsequent player-retention struggles.
- Released: January 26, 2026
- Server shutdown: March 12, 2026
Concord
Sony’s shooter Concord launched in August 2024, and just 11 days later, the publisher announced that the multiplayer shooter would shut down for good on September 6 of that year.
Not only was Concord taken offline, but its developer, Firewalk, was shuttered.
Concord had extremely low player numbers on Steam (and presumably PS5 as well) as the game is estimated to have only sold 25,000 copies across all systems as of the end of August. Despite the low player numbers, few could have predicted that Sony would make such a dramatic decision to stop sales, close the servers, and refund everyone after such a short period of time.
- Released: August 23, 2024
- Server shutdown: September 6, 2024
Battleborn
Developed by Borderlands studio Gearbox and published by 2K, Battleborn had a lot of excitement and hype behind it–but the game did not pay off. Launched in 2016 as a premium game, Battleborn struggled in the market in part because another game, Blizzard’s Overwatch, came out weeks later and ate its lunch. In 2017, Battleborn adopted a free-to-play business model, but that couldn’t save the game either, and it eventually closed for good in January 2021.
Battleborn’s failure to find a footing in the market came despite Gearbox investing heavily in it. Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford said, “We’ve invested more than Borderlands 1 and 2 added together in Battleborn.” At the time, Pitchford unknowingly foreshadowed Battleborn’s fate. “We don’t even know if people will be interested or not,” he said.
- Released: May 2016
- Server shutdown: January 2021
Crucible
Amazon Games didn’t exactly hit the ground running with its gaming efforts, as one of the company’s first big releases, Crucible, didn’t live long and had an odd development history. The free-to-play arena shooter became available to download in May 2020 for PC, but, due to a variety of reasons, Amazon opted to revert it back to a closed beta in June 2020. At the time, the studio said it was soliciting feedback and conducting further tests to help get Crucible in a better place for success in the market. But in October 2020, Amazon confirmed it was discontinuing development efforts on Crucible and shifting focus elsewhere.
- Released: May 2020
- Server shutdown: Never came back online publicly after reverting to closed beta in June 2020
LawBreakers
After leaving Epic Games, Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski started a new studio, Boss Key, which produced the arena shooter LawBreakers with Nexon as its first title. Unfortunately for Bleszinski and company, the game failed to find an audience. And despite Bleszinski’s efforts to save the game, it ultimately shut down in September 2018, only 13 months after its release.
- Released: August 2017
- Server shutdown: September 2018
Radical Heights
After the failure of LawBreakers, Boss Key shifted its sights to the burgeoning battle royale market with Radical Heights, but this game also never broke out. Radical Heights felt, to some, like a half-baked experiment rather than a game people might feel compelled to return to again and again. The game, and the studio itself, would ultimately close up shop for good.
- Released: April 2018
- Server shutdown: September 2018
Anthem
Esteemed RPG studio BioWare released a live-service game called Anthem in 2019, but it failed to attract a wide-enough playerbase. EA and BioWare reportedly considered rebooting the game with new systems to attract and retain more players, but EA officially announced in February 2021 that Anthem would not get more development support and staffers would shift to other projects. Anthem’s servers remain online as of September 2024, so anyone enjoying the game still has something to play, but Anthem would never reach its full potential and will not be remembered among BioWare’s greatest hits.
- Released: February 2019
- Servers still online but Anthem is not getting new development support.
Knockout City
The “dodgebrawl” game Knockout City from Velan Studios had a fun concept and an engaging gameplay loop, along with the backing of publisher Electronic Arts. However, Knockout City failed to find an audience or enough sales to sustain its ongoing live-service model. The game launched in May 2021 but EA would eventually hand over the publishing rights to Velan in June 2021, at which time the game adopted a completely free-to-play model. Ultimately, however, Knockout City never caught on, and the official servers closed in June 2023. A Private Server Edition remains available for the dedicated group of fans who want to keep playing.
- Released: May 2021
- Server shutdown: Official servers closed in June 2023, but a Private Server Edition is still online.
Bleeding Edge
UK developer Ninja Theory found success in 2017 with Hellblade, and one of its next projects, Bleeding Edge, was a completely different type of game that many probably forget even existed. The multiplayer online battle arena game (remember MOBAs?) was released in 2020 for Xbox and PC, but just a year later in January 2021, the studio said it was ending development on the game and would move its focus to Hellblade II and other projects. The game’s servers are still online, however, which is good news for anyone still interested in playing.
- Released: March 2020
- Servers remain online but the game is not getting more development support.
RumbleVerse
Iron Galaxy’s fighting game RumbleVerse had a lot of hype and expectation behind it, but the free-to-play battle-royale brawler didn’t live long. It was released in August 2022 and closed at the end of February 2023–a lifespan of just six months. In a statement, the developers said making the game was a “labor of love” and hinted at the reason for its closing. The studio said the genre is “popular and highly competitive,” and the game likely just couldn’t find an audience.
- Released: August 2022
- Server shutdown: February 2023
Gigantic
Perfect World Entertainment’s MOBA Gigantic was not a gigantic success (please forgive me). The free-to-play game debuted in July 2017, but it was just a few months later when the developers at Motiga announced that active development was ending. And in July 2018, the servers were shut down for good. There is some good news, though, as a version of the game called Gigantic: Rampage Edition came out in April 2024.
- Released: July 2017
- Server shutdown: July 2018 (but Gigantic Edition servers are still online)
Warhaven
Warhaven, a sword-based multiplayer game, was released into Steam early access on September 20, 2023, and after only seven months of early access and prior to the game’s planned console launch, Nexon opted to shut it down in April 2024. The publisher said it was with a “heavy heart” that it would soon be shutting down the sword-based multiplayer title’s live service operations.
- Released: September 2023
- Server shutdown: April 2024
Mortal Kombat Onslaught
The team-based RPG Mortal Kombat Onslaught was billed as the next big mobile version of the popular fighting game, but it was not meant to be. The game was removed from the App Store and Google Play on July 22 and will officially turn off servers on October 21, 2024.
Onslaught originally debuted on October 17, 2023, so it’s shutting down just over a year after it launched.
“It has been an honor creating this game for our Kommunity,” the developer said.
Mortal Kombat Onslaught was developed by NetherRealm Studios, the same developer behind the main series. No explanation was given for why Onslaught is shutting down.
- Released: October 2023
- Server shutdown: October 2024
Many More
Unfortunately, plenty of games have suffered the same fate as the ones mentioned above in terms of going live and shutting down relatively quickly. Here are a few more examples:
