Ubisoft pulls plug on Shadowbane

Ubisoft has regrettably announced that the long-standing MMO Shadowbane will no longer be supported by the publisher, with its final severs shutting down at the start of May.

Ubisoft offered no explanation as to why the game will no longer be supported. A Ubisoft spokesperson was unavailable for comment when approached by Develop.

“We come to you now with regret and sadness, but also happiness and pride. Regret and sadness that it has finally come to this, and as of May 1, 2009 the Shadowbane servers will be powered down once and for all,” read the announcement of the game’s closure.

Shadowbane was developed by now-defunct Wolfpack Studios and was released in March 2003. Considered an early pioneer in the PvP MMO genre, the PC title’s future was thrown in doubt when in 2006 Ubisoft closed the studio after two years of ownership.

Wolfpack Studios was replaced by Texan developer Stray Bullet Games; an outfit consisting of the original Wolfpack members, though now independent of Ubisoft. Shadowbane then joined the hit-and-miss world of free-to-play games. The game had been maintained for over six years.