Guerrilla Games has officially announced that Killzone servers will shut down from August 12. The studio made this announcement via Twitter. The tweet explains how “online servers for Killzone: Mercenary, Killzone Shadow Fall (including Intercept Mode) and RIGS: Mechanized Combat League will shut down.”
The company explained that all multiplayer modes and online features in the aforementioned games would be shutting down, but luckily all single-player modes will continue to function normally indefinitely.
On 12 August 2022, online servers for Killzone: Mercenary, Killzone Shadow Fall (including Intercept Mode) and RIGS: Mechanized Combat League will shut down. Online features (including online multiplayer modes) will cease on that date. Single player offline modes remain available
— Guerrilla (@Guerrilla) July 22, 2022
Guerrilla Games didn’t provide any further details about why the online servers are being shut down, but it is most likely the dwindling player base that doesn’t warrant the server costs.
Killzone: Shadow Fall and Killzone: Mercenary were both released in 2013 for the PS4 and PSVita, respectively. These are the latest Killzone games because the franchise hasn’t gotten any new games since then. RIGS: Mechanized Combat League came out for PlayStation VR in 2016.
Earlier this year, in January, Sony shut down the Killzone website; visitors to the website are now greeted by this message:
“The official website for the KILLZONE franchise has retired. Going forward, visitors to Killzone.com will be directed to PlayStation.com.”
What Does This Mean For The Future of Guerrilla Games?
As no new games in the franchise have been announced or even leaked, this wording pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin. This means that the franchise will not be getting any titles in the future. And this shouldn’t come as a shock. Since the monumental success of both Horizon: Zero Dawn and the latest Horizon: Forbidden West, Killzone has become a thing of the past for Guerrilla Games.
The series’ popularity had been steadily declining, even with Killzone: Shadow Fall being released as a PS4 launch title. Guerrilla Games will most likely focus on their successful IPs from now on and perhaps explore some new ideas in the future as well.