2022 was a full year full of highs and lows from every corner of the gaming sphere. With games like God of War: Ragnarok and Elden Ring absolutely smashing sales and charts worldwide to popular games quietly shutting down or getting delayed. In this article, I want to touch on some games we loved and lost. Some games deserved their end, while others were gone too soon. This list is in no particular order or structure; it just includes games that caught my eye or made headlines for leaving us last year.
Assassins Creed 3
Now, this is one I should have seen coming if we are going to be 100% yet it still caught me off, guard. Logically I know that Ubisoft can’t keep servers going forever and Assassin’s Creed 2 multiplayer servers shut down a while back it only makes sense that AC3 would be next. I did enjoy the multiplayer of these games. They were refreshing and not your average multiplayer we’d see in a game like COD. The cat-and-mouse chasing of other players while relaying on skill and gadgets always made for fun yet often humbling nights.
Assassin’s Creed 3 was a game that has taken a while for most fans of the series to warm up to. It picked up the reins right after the series darlings Ezio and Desmond were put to rest. Out of everything new in Assassin’s Creed 3, the multiplayer was completely redesigned with new characters who each had unique powers and new modes that highlighted a variety of them. It is unfortunate that these game modes will not be accessible anymore since servers went offline in September 2022. Additionally, since Assassin’s Creed Unity in 2014, Ubisoft has not given much attention to the multiplayer component of the Assassin’s Creed games.
I know that Black Flag and Rouge are next to be on the online server shut down but to be honest I have never played multiplayer for those games and truly Black Flag as least is such an amazing game that it does not need multiplayer anymore. This also means I’m getting older.
Forsaken World
Hearing that this game shut down made me a little emotional. I have hundreds of hours into this free-to-play title and while I haven’t played it in years it has held a special place in my heart. When I first got into PC gaming and didn’t have a ton of money this was all I really played. I’m talking back in 2011-2014 give or take. Forsaken World was a 2011 free-to-play MMORPG that was created by Perfect World Beijing and released by Perfect World Entertainment.
The game allowed players to immerse themselves in a magical universe where their actions had a direct impact on the world around them. It had the typical class and race systems. Among MMORPGs, it was one of the few to have a playable vampire class. On April 28, 2022, the game’s creators officially announced that Forsaken World servers would be shutting down on November 30, 2022, bringing the game’s 11-year lifespan to a close. Perfect World Entertainment changed its name to Gearbox Publishing after being acquired by Embracer Group in 2021 for $103 million. The life of an MMO with a Chinese concentration was put to an end when the new administrators decided to concentrate more on the Western market.
As I said it’s probably the game I have the most time into on this list. I am sad to see it go but thankful for the time and friends I made on it. This is a game I could see the community reviving though.
Scavengers
I genuinely felt bad about this one shutting down. I have been following it since it was announced and even played it a little bit even though I am not a PvPvE type of person. The game lasted a year and a half before the November 2022 announcement that the servers would be shutting down.
The failure of Scavengers to connect with a sustainable audience was likely made worse by the acquisition of developer Midwinter by Behaviour Interactive, the company behind Dead by Daylight. Scavengers ultimately never left early access before it ended on December 16, just like several of the other games on this list. This could have been a solid game but no it will be used to the history books.
Jump Force
This may be naive of me especially since gaming is what I live and breathe but I didn’t think 1 v1 fighting games could shut down so quickly. In my mind no matter how mid a fighting game was they just seemed to stay open forever. Naive I know even if it is a fighting game it’s still a game that needs to see numbers and audience retention.
Jump force came out in 2019-2020 and was announced to be shutting down on November 10, 2021. Bandai Namco then delisted it from digital stores along with its DLCs on February 8, 2022. It finally whimpered its last breath 10 months later on August 24, 2022. There were 40 characters over 16 series like Naruto, One Piece, and Hunter X Hunter.
I know this game really struggled to find its footing and received middle-of-the-road scores. To make an educated guess, 2019-2020, saw Bandai published or developed 22 other games, including The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope and Man of Medan, Ace Combat 7, Project Cars 3, and a handful of other anime fighting titles. Not that I’m making an excuse for the game, but it was crowded with some other titles as well. I think this game just couldn’t capture the market it needed as it was taken by other fighting games that just controlled better and presented a better product to consumers.
Forza Street
I didn’t even know there was a “street” Forza. My introduction was Horizon 4 which I absolutely fell in love with that then lead me to check out the Motorsports side. You are probably very confused about not knowing what this game is but relax and breathe because this is a mobile game.
It was an accomplishment to create a realistic racer with the polished Forza look and feel that still felt like a full-fledged game in the player’s hands and on the go. The simulator component of the core Forza games was taken and made available for the casual gamer in Forza Street. Unfortunately, Forza Street did create a rift in the community. It was either adored or despised by players.
The servers for this mobile game were therefore shut down for a variety of reasons. The cars ran on their own; players weren’t in complete control over them. Turns, boosts, and other interactive features that aided in winning the race were tapped on the screen by players. For a mobile game, Forza Street had a fairly long lifespan; it was released in 2019 and continued for three years before being stopped in early 2022. In order to ensure that no one was dissatisfied, developers compensated users who made purchases within 30 days of the game’s closure.
Half of these titles will never completely leave due to the single player but the other half are gone forever or until to community unites and starts its own servers to keep the game alive. Out of those listed which game do you have experience with? Would you like to see another part of the Games shut down in 2022?
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