List of cancelled/closed MMOs?

[Venkman]

With Hellgate:London shutting down in January, I was reminded we don't have a good list here for MMOs that have shut down. Maybe one exists somewhere? All I've got though is the one I've built over the years.

There's no real agenda here, though there may be some interesting corrolations that come from this when compared against schild's history of bad design.

First, some rules:

1) For the first list, the game had to actually go live. Anything that was a far-along playable game that didn't launch goes in list #2.
2) For the second list, some citation about it being heavily hyped or some actual proof the game was playable would help.
3) Pipe dreams don't count.


Games that were shut down

• AW Planet- Need more info,
• Air Warriors: The first multiplayer air combat simulation and one of the first MMO games ever. Ran in one form or another on various platforms from 1986 to 2001* Thanks UnSub
  Asherons Call 2 (AC2)- Cancelled on December 30, 2005. A very pretty game with a lot of good ideas seemingly challenged in a number of ways due to relationships, extreme technical issues and never having achieved a critical mass in community.
  
• Auto Assault (AA)- Tested but decided not to buy. Game closing in September 2007.
• Earth and Beyond (EnB)- Closed in September 2004. MMO space sim-esque game by EA.
• Faces of Mankind- Released March 2006 closed November 2007. Sequel was cancelled in June 2008. Thanks Wasted
  
• Fury- Lasted ten months until it closed in August 2008. Thanks Wasted
  
• Legends of Kesmai- Launched in 1984 or 1985 as a followup to the ASCII-based Islands of Kesmai on Compuserve (which was developed by the same group that launched Air Warrior). Shut down in 2001. Thanks Damijin
  
• Irth Online- Closed at some point. Site still up but game cannot be played. Last update was in Feb 2008 when some server moves weren't going well. Guess they went real bad. Thanks Wasted
  
• Middle Earth Online- Apparently nixed in 1999. License of the Tolkien source material eventually landed with Turbine who launced Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.
  
• Mimensis Online- Release Jan 2002 closed March 2005. Post-apocalyptic mmo from Tannhauser Gate. Thanks Wasted
  
• Motor City Online (MCO)- Closed in August 2003. MMO driving game from EA.
• Seed- Cancelled on September 28, 2006
• Shadow of Yserbius from Sierra.  Shut down in '96. Thanks Draegen.
  
• Shadowbane- From Wolfpack. Shut down on May 1st, 2009. Thanks Waylander.
  
• Space cowboys: Fee Mmporg. Was shut down but due to some shinanigans. It has been largly relaunched in a near identical form by another company under the name Air Rivals. Thanks Sir T
  
• Tabula Rasa- Announced shutdown on 11/21/08. Intended to close February 28, 2009.
  
• The Sims Online: Mar 2007 game changed to EA Land. Shut down in Aug 2008. Thanks LC
  
• Underlight- Closed in 2007. Thanks Numtini
  
• (the first) Warhammer Online- A joint venture with Games Workshop, begun in 2001, cancelled on June 21, 2004. Thanks Modern Angel
  
  

* From GameOrge by way of UnSub. Titles from this site are split between the above and the next two sub-sections.

Eastern imports that never gained any traction

That's what this below list feels like. It could be the different cultures have different sensibilities (ie, grind as a badge of honor vs grind as an alienator), or business model (ie, microtransactions still are taking hold and a hard sell to veterans in the Western markets, or what the company thinks is worth $14.99/mo isn't). Not really sure if these are worth adding to either major list.

• ATC Online- Feels like one of a few dozen imports from Korea that never took hold.
• BattlePosition- 2D in the 21st century?
• Carpe Diem- Same as ATC
• El Kardian Online- No info.
• Fairyland Online- Same as ATC
• Ferentus- Same as ATC
• Fung Wan Online- Same
• Gunster- Same as BattlePosition, and the above two
• Prince of Qin- What's an "ARPG"?
• Ray Crash- Same as the samey sames
• SupremeDestiny- Yep
• True Fantasy Online (Travia Online)- Not sure about this one. Site's been down for refurbishment since 2007.

Not sure what to do with these

These titles at the same Global MMO site seem like indie/garage titles that never had a serious chance. No slight on the sweat and tears put into them of course. But if we listed every single title ever conceived, this list would quadruple to include dozens of titles that even now are under consideration.

• Sigonyth
• Tactica Online
• Turf Battles (Sephiroth in Korea)- NA and EU games purportedly shut down due to DDoS attacks. Game may still live on in Korea?

Some errors

The GlobalMMO list has mostly good info but a few errors:

• Cabal Online- The site is up, hosts have the game to download, and you can create an account.
  
• Ragnarok Online- Still going. Done so well it's spawned a sequel and an animated series.
  
• ROSE Online- The original developer/publisher gave up, but three different operators continue offering the game, Gravity Interactive being what appears to be the biggest of the.
  
  

Games that were big hypes or far along in development and cancelled

• Multiplayer Battletech 3025- Shut down in December 2001 in beta.
• Ballerium- MMORTS that made it to beta but never got a solid publisher. Thanks UnSub.
  
• Dragon Empires (DE)- Cancelled in 2004. Codemasters shifted focus in this genre to publish other games, mostly imports from the Far East (like RF Online and the upcoming Archlord). Moved from first list.
• Gods & Heroes (GH)- Closed during beta on October 9,2007. MMO set in Rome, built by Perpetual Entertainment who worked on Star Trek Online until those rights moved over to Cryptic Studios.
• Mythica- MMO from Microsoft Game Studios. Was to feature heavy instancing with destructible zones (using the Havok physics engine) and combinable character powers ala FFXI Renkai or EQ2 Heroic Opportunities. Cancelled February 12, 2004.
• Realms of Torment/Mourning (and Thrones of Chaos)- Need more info here. Mentioned by LC and Votan
  
• Reclamation- Cancelled on Jan 1, 2007 because of the closure of Underlight.
• Sovereign- An SOE MMORTS that was cancelled in 2001. Thanks Ubvman and Phred
  
• Trials of Ascension- Info help please.
• Ultima Online 2- First it evolved into Ultima Worlds Online: Origin and then development was cancelled in March 2001, nominally to shift resources over to continuing to support UO instead of risking cannabalization of it. Thanks Xuri
  
• Wish (Wish)- Canceled  on January 9, 2005. The core concept seemed similar to UO in some ways, with true skills-based advancement, housing, a player driven economy and ample PvP

I feel like I’m missing baseball game of some form or another. And the one game I can’t seem to get a solid status on is Ryl. Finally, I’m also sure there’s a few dozen fly-by-night MMOs from the East that are missing.

So who’s got more infoz?

[Sir T]

Space cowboys: Fee Mmporg. Was shut down but due to some backwards shinanigans its has been largly relaunched in a near identical form by another company under the name Air Rivals.

[Xuri]

Are you including MMOs that were never released in this list of yours? If so, you have to include UO2 and UO2 (take 2, also known as UXO).

[Velorath]

Are you including MMOs that were never released in this list of yours?

Looks like it since he included Mythica.  Of course that would make the list much longer, with stuff like Imperator, True Fantasy Live Online, the Marvel MMO, etc...

[Venkman]

Yea, good point. Maybe I'll add some ground rules. To your question though: yes.

Edit: Ok, modified the first post

[Wasted]

Codemasters are closing their RF online servers in November, Mythos is dead along with Hellgate?

It gets a bit murkier when you look at games like Saga of Ryzom that closed and then got restarted as a free to play game, or like Rubies of Eventide which did the same thing.

For the sake of this thread I checked the site for Irth Online which seems dead and done.

The number of smaller games that didn't get any attention to start with that puffed and died is probably pretty long, but then again a lot of them seem to attract just enough people to have someone donate a free server or something to limp along.  I just check and saw that there is still a Dransik classic server still running it seems

[Venkman]

Yea, the above list is a snapshot. But to your point, Eventide, Ryzom, and I think even Horizons all closed and re-opened (and Horizons' name changed). If you or anyone can think of one or two more games that did that, then I'll add a third list

Irth's site is still up but the Play button is dead 

I don't think real tiny hobbiest startup games count at this point, but someone could argue that ATiTD falls into that category even though it's done much better (at its scale) than merely "limp along" all these years.

[LC]

For the second list:

NM guess you had it, and I missed it somehow.

What about The Sims Online?

Realms of Torment/Mourning/Thrones of Chaos

Africa, Phylon, and The Chronicle from Rapid Reality.

[Wasted]

Oh yeah, how could everyone forget Fury? 

[Venkman]

For the second list:

NM guess you had it, and I missed it somehow.

What about The Sims Online?

Realms of Torment/Mourning/Thrones of Chaos

Africa, Phylon, and The Chronicle from Rapid Reality.

Wow, forgot about EA Land. What were those other two? Can you provide some details?

[LC]

There's not much information left on Rapid Reality, and their multiple mmo projects. They claimed that they had developed technologies that would allow them to release a new MMO every 3 months. Their first game was supposed to be "The Chronicle", but it was never released. They did release Phylon, but it was just Endless Ages with new textures. After Phylon was cancelled they announced that they were going to focus on "Africa", but their site went offline shortly after that.

http://www.warcry.com/news/view/69435

Realms of Torment/Mourning/Thrones of Chaos was the over-hyped hardcore pvp mmo that came before Darkfall. They changed the name at least four times, but I can't remember all of the names. It was developed by Romanian Gypsies or something. Eventually they stole all of the pre-order money, and rode off into the sunset.

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/37720

Later it was renamed (Thrones of Chaos) again, but they couldn't steal any pre-order money. There's a thread about it here if you use search .

[Venkman]

There's not much information left on Rapid Reality, and their multiple mmo projects. They claimed that they had developed technologies that would allow them to release a new MMO every 3 months. Their first game was supposed to be "The Chronicle", but it was never released. They did release Phylon, but it was just Endless Ages with new textures. After Phylon was cancelled they announced that they were going to focus on "Africa", but their site went offline shortly after that.

http://www.warcry.com/news/view/69435

Oh, yea, the MMOcenter guys. I put them in the same category as Atriarch, though of course the latter was development hype rather than business hype.

I'm inclined to disqualify Phylon because while it was nuked it kinda was reborn as Endless Ages III and is therefore still active (in the way Ryzom is active). What do you think?

[Trippy]

Majestic (yet another failed EA MMO )

Launched July 31, 2001, closed April 30, 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_(video_game)

[LC]

Oh, yea, the MMOcenter guys. I put them in the same category as Atriarch, though of course the latter was development hype rather than business hype.

I'm inclined to disqualify Phylon because while it was nuked it kinda was reborn as Endless Ages III and is therefore still active (in the way Ryzom is active). What do you think?

I believe some fans bought Endless Ages. It doesn't use the updated textures from phylon.

[LC]

Dawn or Rune Conquest?

[Wasted]

I actually did some work for you this time Darniaq!

Mimesis online:released Jan 2002 closed March 2005. Post-apocalyptic mmo from Tannhauser Gate. http://web.archive.org/web/20051030153131/www.thgate.com/mimesis.php
Face of Mankind: released March 2006 closed November 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_of_mankind


Another down and up again game, The Realm Online, I was sure that was closed down for a long time

[Jamiko]

Mimesis Online

[schild]

Majestic (yet another failed EA MMO )

Launched July 31, 2001, closed April 30, 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_(video_game)

ARG meets MMO was such a sweet concept though. The tech just wasn't there yet.

[Lantyssa]

How is Gods and Heroes in list One, while Wish is in list Two?  Wish was in beta.  Do betas go to One or Two?

Add Multiplayer Battletech 3025 as cancelled in beta.  It was supposedly close to release when EA killed it unexpectedly.

[Votan]

As for closed games you forgot one of the worst disasters of all time.....Mourning. 

Sorry Mourning deserves a line to itself.......Other closed down games (least western servers) Ragnarok Online, Face of Mankind

Games in the development stage that got canceled...Trials of Ascension.

[Numtini]

While somewhat forgotten because it was bizarre and early, Underlight shut down last year after a quite long run

[UnSub]

AHHHHH WHY DOESN'T THIS FORUM SAVE POSTS SO IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY HIT THE BACK BUTTON YOU DON'T HAVE TO RETYPE EVERYTHING AHHHH

http://www.globalmmo.com/mmorpg-list/mmorpg/cancelled

http://www.gameogre.com/mmograveyard.htm

Citizen Zero: Bought out by Microsoft (who bought Microprose to get access to the BigWorld set of tools) and existed in name only for quite a while before officially being killed. This was back when there was going to be a MMO on the Xbox. 

Fung Wan Online: Based on an Asian comic book series, you picked one of five classes and five clans to be part of alliances and wars against the other clans. And hang on: it's not dead, just reborn under a different name with a different studio.

[Xuri]

AHHHHH WHY DOESN'T THIS FORUM SAVE POSTS SO IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY HIT THE BACK BUTTON YOU DON'T HAVE TO RETYPE EVERYTHING AHHHH

Pick a better browser.

[Koyasha]

I would put the original Horizons design on that list, if only for the 'big hype' part, since I don't think it ever got very far along in development.  The Horizons that launched was, as far as I am aware, a complete redesign (or even a completely new design) of the original idea, and about the only recognizable feature was 'playable dragons'.

[Ratman_tf]

Man, there was a game called The Second Age or The Second Coming that was out around the time of UO/EQ. Top down sprites. It was an MMO without a server. (The business plan was to make the game available to ISPs themselves instead of running their own server farms.

Not sure what became of it, and nothing on google.

[Venkman]

Good updates. In a bit I'll edit the original post. Some questions/comments:

Majestic: Personal bias here, so please argue me down: but the above list was more based on persistent graphical MMOs than in the quasi-ARG stuff. Diablo 2 is to me much more an MMO than Majestic was. Plus it could be argued they simply changed the scope of the game by releasing it complete as a CD-ROM instead of backing it with The Game-esque service. But again, just a bias. Lemme know the collective wisdom.

Microprose was bought by Spectrum Holobyte not by Microsoft.

Thanks for the list from Global MMO. Good stuff.

I know dickall about Realms of Mounring, but since it's come up again if someone can post a deeper history than just it being an over-hyped PvP MMO that'd be great.

Mimesis Online- I remember the title but nothing about the game. Details?

Horizons changed in scope but didn't die really. Sorta like Ryzom for a time.

Lantyssa: good point about G&H. Will fix. And will add Battletech.

[Rasix]

Wasn't there a Microsoft Battletech 3025 MMO that was playable at some point and got canned?

Hero Quest and Atriarch.. any movement on those lately?

[Venkman]

Latyssa got Battletech, but thanks.

I just realized there was something else:

One the inspirations for this list was dispelling the notion that no MMOs have ever been canceled. But the closure of a game few know about and the closure of one everyone wanted to play are radically different in terms of their impact on understanding what works and doesn't in this medium. Anyone want to take a stab at rating the list as it grows between those titles only the real geeks like us know about and those that companies themselves would be concerned about continuing/cancelling?

[Goreschach]

Wasn't there a Microsoft Battletech 3025 MMO that was playable at some point and got canned?

It was more finished than most MMO's at release. Yeah, I'm still pissed.

[Venkman]

Updated above list, created new one, all sorts of stuff.

Goreschach: how far along exactly? Near-done like G&H or playable-Alpha?

[Baldrake]

Annoying pedantry:

-- Depending on your definition of MMO, you can include Neverwinter Nights (the AOL one)

-- Technically, M59 was shut down and then restarted

-- SWG was shut down (and replaced by another game sharing many of the same art assets) 

[Venkman]

Funny

I was considering NWN from AOL actually, but I'm really not sure how far back to go. I mean, do we start when the term "MMORPG" emerged? Start when graphical persistent worlds began (I think it was The Realm but there could be one of those graphical chat spaces from the late 80s that could apply too)?

And M59 I left off because it did come back, like Ryzom.

[Wasted]

Mimesis Online- I remember the title but nothing about the game. Details?

I think they where a Polish company and it really only got an audience over there, got a bit of a mention around the traps for a while and open beta and clients on magazine discs etc. I tried the beta for like half an hour I think and all I really remember where the horrible animations that had you walking like a gorilla.  The site is all down for the game now, so I couldn't find anything up to date.

Here is another list site that could be helpful http://www.gamerifts.com/links/gamelists.shtml

[UnSub]

Microprose was bought by Spectrum Holobyte not by Microsoft.

Sorry - I confused Microprose and Micro Forte.

I think a list like this needs the big names as well as the small ones. It's important to recognise that just because it might be cheap to buy and convert an SE Asian MMO for the Western market, doesn't mean it will catch on.

Also, I'd go back as far as graphical MMOs would let me. That'd be The Realm as the first one, as Darniaq said?

The current reality is that few dev studios appear to learn from the MMOs that failed - actually, it is probably true of most industries, where failure is often treated as contagious. But a number of these cancelled titles did have some great ideas, but were let down by shoddy execution and / or the industry at the time. I mean, if Motor City Online launched with a new graphics engine and updates to the core concept (e.g. $5 a month to sub to, also reflect the differences in how people play MMOs since MCO was cancelled), I think it would be a notable success.

[Venkman]

I agree. I'm now wondering if the next major update to the list includes why these games got canned or closed. Wikipedia itself only has about 1/3 of the listed games.

In general, I'm big on post mortems. But I mostly see people so happy a project is over that they just don't want to talk about the damned thing anymore, so much so they're not even paying attention to the results of that project to the customer using it. And yes, I'm using vague terms like "project" and "customer" because to UnSub's point, this happens in a lot of industries. And it's been going on for so long that between that and the politics I've been following, it truly is apparent that nobody learns from history. It's not that the history isn't there to be learned, it's that nobody wants to bother.