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SOE to shut down four MMOs this year

Free Realms, Vanguard, Wizardry and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures to close.

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MMO specialist Sony Online Entertainment (Planetside 2, DC Universe Online and the forthcoming Everquest Next) has just announced that the studio are shutting down four of their MMOs this year.

Free Realms, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Wizardry Online are all set to be closed down in the months ahead, with SOE set to sunlight the MMOs between the end of March and July. Several forum posts revealed dates and details (which you can see below).

"At Sony Online Entertainment, we are always evaluating our portfolio to ensure we're providing players with the best gameplay experiences," Michele Cagle, director of global communications, said in a statement. "At times, as part of this commitment, we have to make the difficult decision to sunset a game so we can refocus our resources on other areas in the best interest of our company and player community."

SOE's Steve George took to the Free Realms forums to say that the studio would shut down the MMO on March 31: "Free Realms has truly been a labor of love for SOE (even our own president's kids are huge fans and active players of the game!). In a nutshell, the game has reached a stage in its life cycle where players are growing up and moving on to other games."

Free Realms
Free Realms had a reputation for being family friendly.

Free Realms has been around since 2009 and will shut down on the same day as Star Wars: Clone Adventure Wars, which itself was launched in 2010. Again Steve George popped up in the forum to explain: "It is with sadness that I announce the news that Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures will end March 31, 2014. We've had many incredible experiences with you over the years. We've fought epic battles and made unbelievable memories. It was a very difficult decision to make, but we knew this day would come eventually."

The longest running of the four MMOs, Vanguard, was launched in 2007 and will shut down on July 31. John Smedly posted the following message on that game's forum: "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."

Despite only launching last year, Wizardry Online will be the fourth title to close this year, with the sun setting on the MMO on July 31. Here's the message from senior producer Todd Carson on the game's forum: "we have mutually agreed with our partners at Gamepot to sunset Wizardry Online on July 31, 2014. The opportunity to bring a new hardcore fantasy MMORPG based on the Wizardry franchise to players across North America was a great honor, and we've had some fantastic battles and experiences together in the game."

Free Realms
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures will follow Star Wars Galaxies into the sunset.

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