Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to shut down on December 18

The first (and only) MMORPG set in the fantasy world of Warhammer is being shut down. The game, titled Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, will be saying goodbye to its servers on December 18. This isn't because the game hasn't been popular. Rather, it is because of the end of the licensing deal between developer Mythic Entertainment and Warhammer IP-owner Games Workshop.

Warhammer Online is going away

"Games Workshop has cultivated a world class IP," wrote Producer Carrie Gouskos. "We were lucky enough to play in their universe for nearly a decade, with five great long years live. However, like all things — our contract has come to an end. Both Games Workshop and Mythic agreed to part ways, despite how hard it is emotionally on us to let the game go. It has been a tremendous honor to work with Games Workshop and even though we may be parting ways, our relationship with them remains strong."

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Ideally, when a licensing agreement is coming to an end like this, the IP-owner often renews the license if the game is popular enough. Unfortunately for Mythic, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, while being a praised game, was simply swallowed up by the behemoth that is Blizzard’s World of Warcraft at the time. Because of WoW’s popularity, very few gamers actually tried out any other MMORPG. Times have changed, of course, and if the game were to be released more recently, it would’ve done well for itself, albeit catching some flak for its subscription model.