Deathverse PS5 PS4

Less than four months after its release, developer GungHo Online Entertainment has announced it will be shutting down the servers for free-to-play title Deathverse: Let It Die. The game is being taken offline on 18th July 2023, meaning it will have spent less than a year on the PS Store. However, this won't actually be the last you see of it.

The studio reveals it is pulling the PS5, PS4 experience so it can redevelop it in order to release it again "with significant improvements [that] will allow it to be enjoyed by a wider audience as well as our current players". GungHo believes this is the best decision for the game at this current point despite the fact it has to remove access from players. "We will be doing our utmost to prepare for the re-release so that our current community can enjoy the game alongside many more new players in the future," says a post on the official Deathverse website.

As for why the game is being shut down — at least temporarily — the team points to issues with in-game matchmaking and lag. "While we have tried various solutions to some degree of success, we have not been able to resolve the underlying problems." As such, GungHo Online Entertainment will suspend the servers for an unspecified time while Deathverse is redeveloped.

Between now and the server closure on 18th July 2023, sales of the premium currency Death Metal will be pulled on 7th February, and the entirety of season two will be released. However, season 3 will only launch "partially". The blog post concludes: "All of us in the development team deeply apologize to our loyal players for the sudden notice. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of our players for their support, as well as our heartfelt apologies."

The follow-up to PS4 game Let It Die, the free-to-play title appears to have struggled to find an audience — or at least one as large as the following its predecessor garnered. While not the most popular game on Sony's last-gen system, Let It Die continued to receive support for a number of years after release for a committed fanbase, which included Sony's own Shuhei Yoshida. GungHo Online Entertainment will now be hoping it can pull a Final Fantasy XIV and return to market with a better and more popular title.

[source deathverse.com]