This Week in Bummer News: Warhammer Edition
Alright, who has Warhammer Online in the MMO death pool? After five years of bloody fantasy combat, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is shutting down. But you’ve still got time to get your fill of dwarf-on-elf violence. Read on for the details.
The bad news came earlier today in the form of an announcement on the official Warhammer Online website.
“We here at Mythic have built an amazing relationship working with Games Workshop creating and running Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning over the last 8 years. Unfortunately, as with all licensing deals they do eventually come to end and on December 18th, 2013 we will no longer be operating Warhammer Online. As such we will no longer be selling 3 month game time codes or have the ability to auto renew your accounts for 3 months as of September 18th, 2013.”
The announcement went on to thank the game’s players for all their years of dedication and support. It also included a link to a blog post by producer Carrie Gouskos, in which she reflects on her time spent working on Warhammer Online.
So… bummer. Warhammer Online was never going to topple MMO juggernauts like World of Warcraft, but the game did enjoy some early success. When it launched in September of 2008, the game sold over 1.2 million copies, and boasted 800,000 registered users. But by the following March, the game had lost half a million players, and had its number of servers drastically cut back.