It’s week 6 of 2023 and 15 games have already been declared dead

If you’re not paying attention, January of the year is already over. Didn’t look for a moment and 15 games were already announced to be over or they were already closed. 2023 starts with a lot of game settings – and even a gaming platform has already said goodbye.

How has your year 2023 been so far? My January was pretty good, so the current February can be more stressful. Between the local carnival and our campaign “Find Your Next Game: Love Edition” there is currently little room for other practical jokes.

However, it didn’t hit me as hard as the following 15 games. All have either already been hired or will no longer receive further support during the course of the year. Some can still be played afterwards, others disappear completely from the market.

For each game we write a small paragraph about what it is about. The list is also sorted by relevance – some games may seem more familiar to you than others.

Here is the complete list:

1. Marvel’s Avengers
2. Apex Legends Mobile
3. Battlefield Mobile
4. Rumbleverse
5. spell break
6. Babylon’s fall
7. Knockout City
8. CrossfireX
9. Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights
10. crimesight
11. Deathverse: Let It Die
12. Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds
13. EchoVR
14. Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier
15. Hellfire Tactics
16. “Bonus”: Google Stadia

Gaming graveyard 2023 starts with many settings

For the beating MMO with the well-known Marvel superheroes, the stars were not particularly good for the release. For such a service game, however, this phase is so important in order to build a solid player base. Official support will continue until September 2023. After that, Marvel’s Avengers will still be playable, but there will be no more updates or customer service.

The mobile offshoot of the popular Battle Royale will close its doors in May 2023 – a good year after its release. EA explains that the targeted quality could not be achieved. The lack of connection to the main game should also have played a role. Apex Legends Mobile will then no longer be playable.

The mobile version of the shooter franchise didn’t even get a chance to release. The setting explained EA with changing market conditions. Here, too, they want to strengthen the Battlefield titles together and Battlefield Mobile was created too independently. They want to improve BF2042 and are already working on new Battlefield experiences (via ea.com).

The contact battle royale lasted almost 7 months, but will be discontinued at the end of February. It was fun for some players, but apparently wasn’t successful enough for publisher Epic Games. But the developers want to bring it back in a different form at some point (via irongalaxystudios.com). But for now it’s over and Rumbleverse will no longer be playable.

A battle royale with magic and colorful graphics. Unfortunately, the magical approach didn’t create the pull that the sequel needed – Spellbreak has been shut down and can no longer be played. Some streamers logged on to shut down for a farewell round and, by the way, talked about possible private servers.

With powerful effects and an exciting co-op mode, the action RPG should be a hit for publisher Square Enix. But it often received the title “worst PS5 game ever” and disappeared from the market after less than a year. The servers will be closed after the end of February – Babylon’s Fall will then not be playable in either co-op or single-player mode.

The dodgeball action used to be a new sports game apart from the well-known football or NBA games. But the players didn’t thank the title. Despite the good ratings, the game will close in June 2023 and will no longer be available after that.

A free2play shooter exclusive to Xbox based on a successful Asian brand? An attempt that didn’t work. In May the servers for the multiplayer content will close. The solo missions in the game remain available.

• 9. Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights

The spin-off of the popular RPG series Bravely Default was not intended for the German market, but it is still another game from publisher Square Enix that is about to close its doors. The service will run until the end of February, after which it will be switched to an offline version.

Many tried to copy the success of the surprise hit Among Us, but most failed. This includes Crimesight. The Steam game will remain playable until early May, after which it will be gone.

• 11. Deathverse: Let It Die

A crazy battle royale with a hack & slash approach that definitely has its fans. The developers say it won’t be the end of the game, but it’ll be over for the time being in mid-July. There would be major problems in dealing with lag and matchmaking. With that out of the way, you want to return to the market (via deathverse.com).

• 12. Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds

Oh yeah, Square Enix seems to be going on a diet. The mobile offshoot of Dragon Quest will also close in April and will then no longer be playable.

Robot teams fight in weightlessness in a kind of football with frisbees. All of this in VR too. The concept was not convincing and so the game ends in early August 2023. Echo VR will then no longer be playable.

• 14Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier

What would such a list of heaps of Square Enix be without a Final Fantasy? Right, so the servers of this mobile battle royale in the Final Fantasy VII universe also went offline. As of January 11th, Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier is no longer playable.

A Free2Play card game with obvious similarities to Blizzard’s hit Hearthstone. The end of February 2023 ended here, they didn’t manage to attract enough players to cover the costs. Hellfire Tactics is then no longer playable.

The cloud platform was Google’s biggest foray into the gaming market to date, and it was a total flop. After a good 3 years, the project was discontinued and players were partially compensated.

Whether it was ahead of its time, wanted too much in too little time or the market is developing in a different direction can only be speculated at the moment. In any case, this experiment failed on January 18, 2023. Much to the chagrin of our author Jürgen Horn.

Do you miss a game on the list? Do you mourn one thing? Leave a comment on the topic.