It seems the future of Killzone, Sony’s first-party FPS series, is hanging in the balance. Just today Sony and its developer Guerilla Games have abruptly retired its official website. Although this won’t affect the online modes for Mercenary and Shadow Fall, all multiplayer statistics and clan features are no longer accessible. If you open the Killzone.com website right now, you will be greeted by a notification that simply reads:
Dear Killzone.com visitor,
The official website for the KILLZONE franchise has retired. Going forward, visitors to Killzone.com will be directed to PlayStation.com.
While this change doesn’t affect the online multiplayer modes, player statistics or ranking data for KILLZONE MERCENARY and KILLZONE SHADOW FALL, it is now no longer possible to create or manage clans in KILLZONE SHADOW FALL. We apologize for this inconvenience.”
Killzone was first released on the PS2 on November 2, 2004, and was touted as Sony’s “Halo killer” by the media. Unfortunately, it was panned by critics and gamers alike no thanks to wonky AIs, graphical issues, and awkward controls. However, Sony was pretty adamant about supporting the series. It continues to march on to other consoles, from the PSP, PS3, PS4, to PS Vita.
As someone who liked the franchise (especially for its aesthetics), I do hope it’s getting another sequel one day. But it’s been seven years since the last two games were released for PS4 and PS Vita, Shadow Fall and Mercenary respectively. With that in mind, it’s not particularly surprising that Sony decided to retire the franchise while Guerilla Games can focus its attention on the more warmly received Horizon series instead.
Especially in May last year, Sony suddenly shuts down the servers for Killzone: Mercenary without warning as well. After a few days (and non-stop complaints from the then-very-small-but-somewhat-active player base), the server went online again. It’s still not clear whether the outage was caused by a networking error or actually intended by Sony. Do you have fond memories of playing this series? Drop by in the comments and share your stories with us.