Sony Online Entertainment is destroying four universes

It’s always sad when an MMO shuts down. Loot fizzles out, characters disappear, and quests go forever unanswered. How much sadder is it then that Sony Online Entertainment is shutting down four of their MMO games? Free Realms, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Wizardry Online are all being shut down this year due to low population. (Read as low revenue.) The statement posted to the Vanguard forum, is probably the most honest.

But here’s the deal…player population numbers have decreased making it difficult to justify the resources needed to support and update this game. This is an older game and we’re experiencing more and more technical challenges to continue running and updating it in a way you deserve. Simply put, these are issues that cannot be fixed in the long term and as a player, we would be doing you a disservice and going against our company commitment to provide the best gameplay experiences. So given this information, sunsetting the game later this year is the inevitable conclusion.

Don’t despair! There’s a silver lining. SOE is going bundle up premium membership to DC Universe Online (PC), PlanetSide 2 (PC), EverQuest, EverQuest II, and the upcoming games Dragon’s Prophet, EverQuest Next, and EverQuest Next Landmark into the new SOE All Access subscription for $14.99 a month.