Sprout Esports shuts down

Five years after LawBreakers shut down, we're getting to play the gravity-defying multiplayer FPS again thanks to fans. LawBreakers was the first game from Boss Key Productions, a studio co-founded by Gears Of Wars lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, and it had delightful ultraviolence beneath its uninspiring genric look. Alas, it did not sell well. Boss Key closed less than a year after launch, and the game soon followed. But after years of work, a group of fans this weekend successfully ran the first public test for a workaround to play the game again. While there's no clear launch plan yet, more playtesting will follow.

Possibility Space, an independent game studio with employees distributed across the globe, was abruptly shut down today by its CEO Jeff Strain, former employees revealed on Twitter. The studio launched in 2021 with the goal of creating a AAA title, and it had also hired industry notables like Waypoint's Austin Walker and Ubisoft designer Liz England. Its closure follows the shutdown of Crop Circle Games last month, another studio owned by Strain's Prytania Media, which he co-founded with his wife Annie Delisi Strain.

Possibility Space, the studio founded by State of Decay producer Jeff Strain, has reportedly shut down — with Strain blaming the closure on confidential leaks by employees.

Possibility Space has shut down, according to former employees.

It has been released that EA has reportedly shut down its Apex Legends UK QA team, this is now affecting about 50 other workers, which is quite sad to see. The gaming industry has been struggling this year when it comes to layoffs and job losses.

We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier to say goodbye. Nintendo shut down the online servers for both the Wii U and 3DS today. This means the end of online multiplayer gaming for both consoles, turning Mario Kart 7 for 3DS and the original Splatoon for the Wii U into single player or couch co-op experiences. The first Super Mario Maker is also effectively dead, as there’s no way to browse for and download player-created levels.

Nintendo will be shutting down online play for 3DS and Wii U early next week.

Ubisoft racing game The Crew shut down on March 31st, rendering the game unplayable for everyone who bought it since its release ten years ago.

This is just a quick reminder that Nintendo 3DS and Wii U online services will be discontinued next Monday, 8th April.

The Pokemon Company has officially shut down its Pokemon TV app, sunsetting the anime streaming app available for fans on Switch. Since its debut in the late 1990s, the Pokemon anime has been one of the most popular facets of the massively popular monster-catching franchise, airing consistently for more than 25 years. The franchise has typically debuted a new series of the anime to coincide with each of its new game releases, featuring the most recent games' new region and Pokemon. Now, however, one popular way of watching the anime has now been shut down.

Velan Studios' director of marketing, Josh Harrison, has one recommendation for studios looking to close down or «sunset» a live-service game: «make a private hosted version of your game».

A long-running website for Pokémon fan game enthusiasts has shut down after being served a DMCA takedown notice.