Paragon, the free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that launched on PC and PlayStation 4 in 2016, is shutting down on April 26. Epic Gamesannounced in a blog postthat “there isn’t a clear path for us to growParagoninto a MOBA that retains enough players to be sustainable.”
Although the game had a dedicated following in a genre sadly underrepresented on consoles, its demise is likely due to the massive success of Epic’s free-to-playmultiplayer shooterFortnite, which has garneredmore than 45 million players, with two million playing concurrently.
Although the announcement didn’t address it directly, aReddit posting last weekfrom a representative of the company wrote that “a number ofParagonteam members jumped ontoFortniteto help sustain the game as it has grown far larger than anything in Epic’s past.”
The game was available in Early Access in 2016 and asuccessful open betafollowed before the full digital release. Frequent updates added new heroes, rebalanced various abilities, and often overhauled entire core game mechanics. To say the developers were responsive to the player community is an understatement.
The representative cited the difficulty of retaining players after their first few forays into the game. “The core challenge is that, of new players who tryParagon, only a small number continue to play regularly after a month. ThoughParagonhas evolved, no iteration has yet achieved that magical combination of ingredients that make for a sustainable game.”
Members of theUnreal Tournamentteamhave also been reassignedtoFortnite, according to Kotaku.
Fortnitehas held its own against the other big multiplayer shooter of the year with a “Battle Royale” mode,Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds. Although both games use the Unreal engine,PUBGdeveloper Bluehole has grumbledthat the 100-player Battle Royale mode is aclose copyof its own game.
AlthoughParagonis free to play, it does have in-game purchases. And if you’ve spent any money on the game, Epic is offering full refunds for all Paragon players on all platforms. If you’re playing on PC or you’ve already linked your PS4 to an Epic account, you canrequest a refund here.
