Free-to-play "big team PvP" Warhaven announces closure just 4 months after its early access launch

eurogamer.net:

Nexon has announced it is pulling the plug on its free-to-play PvP medieval fantasy game Warhaven just four months after it launched in early access.

Despite initial plans to launch the game in full later this year, Nexon has now revealed that rather than launching the game in early 2024, it's shutting down on 5th April, 2024.

«Today, we are here to announce with a heavy heart that we will be concluding the live services of Warhaven,» the team announced on Steam earlier this week.

«From the first alpha test in 2021 to the global early access in 2023, Warhaven has come this far, thanks to everyone's love and support. We want to express our gratitude for the love and care you have shown for Warhaven.

»To create a game that could be cherished and enjoyed over an extended period, we invested much consideration and effort," the team added. «However, regrettably, we must bid our sincere farewell as of April 5, 2024. We apologise that we could not come to you with better news.»

As a consequence of the decision, Nexon confirmed that it had suspended «WP charge» as soon as the announcement was made, but specific details about the closure will follow closer to the time.

Whilst not without its fans, the F2P action game struggled to gain traction, and was further mired by a «mixed» score from the 6500+ players who have left a review on Steam. Many of the most recent reviews mentioned frustrations with the game's mechanics and balance, and annoyances that Warhaven's «big team PVP» was whittled down from 16v16 to 12v12 to 6v6. Others complain about server issues and lag.

«If you ask anyone who has played every single public version of the game from 2021 to 2023, you will always get the same response: the first playtest was the best incarnation of the game,» opined one player after the closure had been announced. «It wasn't perfect, far from it. But it set the foundation of what could possibly be.»