Gigantic had all the makings of a huge hit. It was a MOBA that arrived right when the genre was reaching its apex of popularity. It had a colorful and unique art style. And it had the backing of Microsoft who helped shepherd the game onto Xbox One and PC as a major exclusive. However, it never built the audience it wanted and has since languished as updates stretched out and players abandoned the game. Now it is finally being shut down with developer Motiga announcing that the January update was the last the game would see, and Gigantic officially shutting down on July 31st, 2018.
“The journey over these last few years was met with outstanding support from our players and we are all very proud of the incredible experience Gigantic is today,” reads the announcement. “The team wants to give a big shout out to our awesome community – both those who have been with us since the beginning as well as those who just picked up the game recently. We want to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who gave Gigantic a chance”
“Discontinuing Gigantic was not an easy decision. The game is a unique and exciting experience that captured many hearts and minds. Unfortunately, it did not resonate with as many players as we’d hoped. Over the last several months, the teams at Motiga and Perfect World looked into viable options to sustain Gigantic. However, the current state of the game has restricted options for further progress and relevant content updates, and delivering basic features while also fixing long-standing issues was more complicated than expected. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to find an impactful solution that would help Gigantic break through in a crowded market.”
To help ease fan angst over the closure Motiga has made all Heroes free. They’ve disabled the ability to buy in-game currency, though you can still earn it by playing through matches. Everything in the shop will be discounted as well.
We were fans of Gigantic every time we got to check it out, such as at PAX East 2015 where we also spoke with one of the developers. It was clear that the team really cared about the project, so it’s unfortunate to see it not succeed. There were early signs of trouble though, such as the layoffs that hit Motiga in February 2016. Many hoped that this would help keep the game afloat until it could find an audience, but apparently not.
