Psyonix's Nosgoth cancelled
"Its audience hasn't grown enough to sustain ongoing operations"
Square Enix and Psyonix have announced that they're ceasing development of Nosgoth, a free-to-play spin-off of Legacy Of Kain. Nosgoth's community manager relayed the decision and its consequences for players in a forum post today.
"It is with a heavy heart and an immense sense of sadness that we must announce the end of Nosgoth's development. Servers will continue to run until 31st May 2016, during which time you will be able to play the game as normal. After that date, Nosgoth will be taken offline for the last time," said the post.
"This was not an easy decision to come to. It has been a pleasure to build this game with your help, but ultimately its audience hasn't grown enough to sustain ongoing operations."
An FAQ confirmed that any in-game purchases made after March 1, 2016 would be automatically refunded. In-game Runestones are no longer available for purchase.
"Any future Legacy of Kain project will be considered independently of Nosgoth and on the merits of the proposals alone," the FAQ added.
Nosogth was announced in 2013 and the open beta began in January 2015.
The news has been a shock to many players. One of the game's designers, Jacob Mott, seemed positive about the development process in an interview with Gamereactor just last month.
"We've had a lot of players around from the very start who've definitely enjoyed it, and they've seen the game have a big evolution from originally having only three maps, two or three classes for each side, and almost doubling that into what we're currently at, with Beastmaster around the corner," he said.
"We're especially excited for the game to come out of early access when we do get around to that - we're hoping to get a nice push of new players to get in here and get these new fresh perspectives on how the game is feeling for newer players."