Domestic game companies are accelerating the shutdown of unpopular games. Some games announced the end of service less than half a year after launch. Game companies say they will clean up games that do not generate revenue after launch and pursue "selection and concentration," but users are growing frustrated as games they enjoyed abruptly end service.
According to the game industry on the 18th, Nexon said the previous day it will end service for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title "Supervive" on Feb. 26 next year. The decision comes about six months after the game's official launch on July 7. Supervive, created by overseas developer Theorycraft founded by former "League of Legends" developers, went through an early access phase before release but fell short of expectations.
Ahead of ending Supervive's service, Nexon halted content updates and fully suspended sales of paid currency and items. To protect users, it plans to refund payments made since the open beta test (OBT) period. Some payments will be compensated with Nexon Cash.
The Supervive operations team said, "We have concluded that it will be difficult to maintain sufficient momentum to continue development and operations going forward," and added, "Regrettably, we have decided to end service for Supervive."
The same day, NCSOFT also said it will end service for the collection role-playing game (RPG) "Hoyeon " on Feb. 18 next year. Hoyeon, which launched in Aug. last year, will end service about a year and a half later. The game drew attention as it was developed based on the "Blade & Soul" intellectual property (IP), but it did not perform as expected. NCSOFT immediately halted sales of in-game paid items for Hoyeon and will process refunds for recent payments. Earlier, after the game's weak performance, NCSOFT significantly downsized related staff during the spinoff of the development organization.
In addition, NCSOFT announced it will also end service for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "Blade & Soul 2" on June 30 next year. As the official sequel to the original "Blade & Soul," the game drew strong interest, recording 7.46 million pre-registrations before launch. It has been serviced for about four years since its 2021 release, but operations will end. Sales of paid items for this game have already been halted, and additional updates will be wrapped up in stages.
A NCSOFT official said, "We decided to end service as part of portfolio rebalancing to strengthen market competitiveness," and added, "We will work to improve the completeness of new titles and do our best to prevent user harm."
Game companies are ending game services as part of expense optimization. With market conditions weak, they are clearing out low-profitability games and focusing on new titles. However, decisions to end service have been happening faster recently than in the past. Rather than seeking a turnaround through updates and operations, companies are opting to limit losses and concentrate resources on the next project when initial results are limited. This is seen as an attempt to reduce the burden of long-term operations amid surging development and marketing expenses.
Still, user backlash is growing over sudden service shutdowns. Users complain that services are being ended without sufficient advance notice or a phased wind-down. In particular, "heavy users" say they have invested significant time and expense, and that a unilateral shutdown can instantly wipe out the value of their investment. Inside and outside the industry, there are concerns that while such early shutdowns may improve short-term expense efficiency, they could undermine user trust in the long term.
A game industry official said, "With development labor costs rising significantly and service operation expenses also substantial, even large game companies face an environment where it is difficult to carry all titles," and added, "In the past, companies often waited until a game delivered results, but recently there is a trend to quickly wind down games with uncertain early performance and concentrate capabilities on core IP and upcoming titles."