A little over a year after leaving Early Access on Steam, the free-to-play multiplayer MOBA Magicka: Wizard Wars is coming to a close. Publisher Paradox Interactive said it kept the lights on for as long as it could, but the game has been losing money for the past nine months and the time has come to pull the plug.
“When the decision came to halt development on the game we left the servers open so that our small but passionate player base could still continue to enjoy the game as it was, we hope that this has been a fun time for you all (the odd server gremlin aside)!” Paradox said in the Magicka: Wizard Wars forum. “Unfortunately though we have reached the point where we can’t economically justify to continue running the costly server infrastructure.”
Magicka: Wizard Wars will continue to run until July 21, but all items and bundles with a real-money cost have been either removed or converted to Crowns, the in-game currency; players with real-money boosters that expire after the shutdown date should contact Paradox support, so it “can look into refunds where appropriate.” Between now and the shutdown, Paradox may also drop “old content we have collecting dust in our archives” into the game, although what and how much will depend on the amount of work required to make it happen.
It’s an unfortunate conclusion, because Magicka: Wizard Wars showed real promise. But that potential never translated into big numbers: Steam Charts indicates that its average player count hasn’t popped up over 200 since October of last year, and it’s only broken four figures once, in June 2014.
“Finally a big thanks from all of us who’ve worked on the project, to you, the fans,” Paradox wrote. “The passion and feedback from you throughout the whole development of the game has been nothing short of awesome!”
