The servers of PlanetSide Arena, the battle royale spinoff of free-to-play PlanetSide 2, will shut down in January after just four months since its Early Access launch.
PlanetSide Arena launched into Early Access on Steam on September 18, but the game was already in trouble at the time. It was originally planned for a January 2019 release but was later delayed to March, and then eventually to the summer.
The battle royale spinoff started out with support for 300-player matches, spread across 25 teams with 12 players each, with an ambitious plan of eventually supporting 1,000-player matches. However, PlanetSide Arena failed to draw enough interest.
According to Steam Charts, after hitting a peak of 1,481 players in September, PlanetSide Arena only achieved a peak of 297 players in October. That number dwindled further to a peak of 70 players in November. Over the past 30 days, the average number of players online for the game was only 10.5 players, which is definitely not enough for battle royale.
In an announcement on Steam, Daybreak Game Company’s executive producer for the PlanetSide franchise, Andy Sites, said that the population levels in the first few months since PlanetSide Arena launched into Early Access “make it impossible to sustain the gameplay experience we envisioned.”
“As a result, PlanetSide Arena will formally shut down servers on January 10th, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. (PST),” said Sites. Daybreak Game Company is now working with Steam to provide full refunds for players who made purchases during the game’s Early Access, which they will receive in their Steam Wallets after the servers are switched off. After the announcement, all of the game’s DLC and virtual currency were also no longer for sale.
PlanetSide Arena, meanwhile, will be playable until the servers shut down, so players who are interested in the doomed battle royale game have time to give it a try.
Sites said that while the short-lived PlanetSide Arena was “painful,” Daybreak Game Company remains “deeply committed” to the franchise.
PlanetSide 2 is one of the best free-to-play first-person shooters available, but that was not enough to generate significant interest in PlanetSide Arena. This goes to show that while more games are joining the battle royale craze, such as open-world racing title Forza Horizon 4 with The Eliminator mode, success is not guaranteed.
