Software giant Adobe sees many of its popular programs, such as Photoshop, InDesign, and Premiere used in the creation of games and other popular entertainment media. Their programs factor into many different development pipelines, and are so ubiquitous as to be almost unavoidable–which is why many developers were extremely dismayed to wake up to an email from Adobe announcing the program’s discontinuation on March 1.
“We’re contacting you to let you know that Adobe will be discontinuing Adobe Animate on March 1, 2026. As an existing Animate user, you may continue to use Animate, but please note that technical support will no longer be available after March 1, 2027,” states part of the email sent to users.
The email suggests alternative Adobe programs for certain functionality, and also notes that “access to your Animate files and project data will end on March 1, 2027.”
Animate, a successor to the once-popular Flash software, is used for a variety of graphic creation and animation functions, and can also be used to create games in HTML5. It remains a popular tool for animators and developers of all sizes. No official reason has been cited by Adobe for the software’s discontinuation.
Reactions were swift and angry on social media. “Adobe discontinuing Animate out of the blue is nuts,” writes artist and animator Julia Glassman on BlueSky. “Many television productions, games, and all sorts of animated media still rely (on) Animate/Flash pipelines. They’re all supposed to just…pivot to entirely new software and pipelines?!”
Animator Christopher Linoleum brought up how many big-name shows utilize the program: “Adobe Animate remains an industry standard for TV animation. Star Trek: Lower Decks was made in Animate. Haunted Hotel was made in Animate. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was made in Animate. And because you can’t buy a permanent license anymore, it’ll just be gone.”
No official statements have yet been made about productions being affected by the software’s discontinuation.