Epic Games will shut down Paragon, its multiplayer online battle arena title, on April 26. The company announced that it will take the game’s servers offline at that date, offering an apology to those who expected more from Paragon.
Epic Games’ full statement on the reason why Paragon is closing shop is below.
Hey Everyone,
It’s with heavy hearts we’ve decided to close down Paragon.
We truly appreciate everything you’ve put into Paragon. We received many passionate ideas for where to take the game; the outpouring of thoughtful suggestions is another testament to this incredible community.
After careful consideration, and many difficult internal debates, we feel there isn’t a clear path for us to grow Paragon into a MOBA that retains enough players to be sustainable.
We didn’t execute well enough to deliver on the promise of Paragon. We have failed you -- despite the team’s incredibly hard work -- and we’re sorry.
To try to make this right, Epic is offering a full refund to every Paragon player for every purchase on any platform. This refund will come directly from Epic rather than your platform provider.
In order to receive a refund, PlayStation 4 players can go through their Epic accounts, while those on PC without an Epic account can use a separate link.
Paragon fans should also note that as “the player population continues to decrease, matchmaking times and quality will further degrade,” Epic said.
Epic Games first launched Paragon in March 2016 as an Early Access title on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. It later went into open beta in August. Epic Games initially charged players to participate during the Early Access phase before making the game free to play. Paying a premium granted players additional cosmetic items and upgrades.
Epic Games had never specified a full release window for Paragon. The game at one time had more than seven million registered players, according to Epic Games, yet players suggested that the actual active population was far below that toward the end of the game’s lifespan. Epic Games has found far more success with Fortnite, another multiplayer game in Early Access that has enjoyed a large fanbase and increasing popularity since its 2017 launch; earlier this month, the developer said it was shifting gears toward Fortnite and away from Paragon.