The thing you love might not last forever. With the Stop Killing Games movement and the backlash to Sony’s announcement of a digital-only future, video game preservation has never been a more heated topic, and nothing amplifies this discussion more than the announcement of a title’s (or a Fortnite mode‘s) permanent death. By the end of 2026, several games will shut down for good, leaving their fanbases in mourning.
Generally, publishers give a few months’ notice of a game’s impending demise, giving the player base a chance to say their goodbyes and maybe set up community servers (which rarely happens for massive AAA games). However, unless you are plugged into that project’s news cycle, you can easily miss these announcements and, consequently, the eventual sunset. Hopefully, this article helps diminish the chance of that happening.
All these games announced their closures a while back, and this article merely collects them into one place. If you want to visit these worlds for one last time, don’t wait too long to do that.
I’m also not including any FPS games set to shut down, as I dedicated an article to that genre.
Fortnite Rocket Racing Passes The Finish Line In October 2026
A Fortnite Mode That Started Hot But Cooled Down Quickly
- The game’s shutdown was announced on March 24, 2026.
- Official end-of-service notice from Epic Games.
- An exact date hasn’t been announced, but it should happen in October.
- Your Vehicle Locker is safe. Any purchased/unlocked cars, decals, and wheels will remain usable in other modes like Battle Royale.
Epic Games Store expanded Fortnite significantly over the last few years, adding modes to the game’s launcher that are essentially fully fleshed-out spin-offs. While some of these are relatively successful, Rocket Racing is apparently not one of them, despite being one of the most complete experiences. Honestly, this mode should have been a standalone game, especially since it was developed by Rocket League‘s Psyonix.
Earlier this year, Epic Games announced a wave of layoffs and cost-cutting measures, including culling modes like Ballistic and Festival Battle Stage in April because they failed to build a reliable community. Epic announced Rocket Racing‘s closure in the same message, but granted it a much longer sunsetting period. In 2024, Epic ended updates for the mode, suggesting that the player count was low enough to no longer warrant direct support.
Although fine in isolation, Rocket Racing drew controversy because it seemed to exist at the expense of the far more popular Rocket League. Epic killed player-to-player trading in the latter to seemingly promote the former’s cross-game cosmetics, a decision that was not well received.
After two years of high-speed competition, Rocket Racing will leave Fortnite along with all UEFN islands built with Rocket Racing templates in October 2026.
Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis Shuts Down on October 6, 2026
Another Mobile Final Fantasy Game Bites The Dust
Square Enix has spent the last decade trying to establish a mobile Final Fantasy game that can provide a steady stream of revenue, but has repeatedly failed to meet expectations. Mobius Final Fantasy and FF7: The First Soldier only lasted a couple of years, and they were far more successful than the likes of Final Fantasy Explorers-Force and Final Fantasy Awakening.
Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis‘s premature death might be the most frustrating, as the “all in one” package had the potential to be something truly special. Visually, Ever Crisis looks incredible while celebrating both the original and remake timelines; canon-wise, it introduced elements like Sephiroth’s backstory that carry weight for the current FF7 trilogy, making it feel more substantial than something like Mobius.
We understand that this news may be disappointing, and we sincerely apologize for the abrupt nature of this announcement.
For all its positives, Ever Crisis still suffered badly from many of the issues that cause other mobile RPGs to fail. The combat system got old extremely quickly, with most of the gameplay revolving around auto-battling and menu management. The grind for weapon upgrades was absolutely brutal when I played it. Finally, and most importantly, Ever Crisis butchered the story’s presentation, a massive failure considering Square Enix marketed the game as a complete compilation of FF7.
Click on the game with the higher OpenCritic rating.
Tower of Fantasy PS4 Shuts Down on October 20, 2026
The PS4’s Hardware Limitations Finally Take Down This Open-World RPG
Let’s go for something a touch different now. Like Genshin Impact and Call of Duty: Warzone, Tower of Fantasy decided to put its last-gen version out of its misery, ending its run on the PS4 in October. If a cross-gen live-service game sticks around for years and features something resembling modern visuals, a time will come when the older hardware simply cannot run the newest updates. This fate awaits all of these releases.
Due to issues with performance optimization and application size limitations, we regret to inform you that we will discontinue our support and updates for Tower of Fantasy on PlayStation 4.
Debuting globally in 2022, Tower of Fantasy is an open-world RPG that continues to receive fairly regular updates that add new characters and regions. On September 15, the game plans to add Zoey to its lineup, and the future looks fairly bright for PS5, mobile, and PC users.
Destruction All-Stars Becomes Unplayable on November 25, 2026
A Crash Course In Live-Service Failure
- Multiplayer was taken permanently offline on May 26, 2026.
- Single-player modes end on November 25, marking the game’s final end.
Once in a while, a shutdown announcement comes along that makes you think, “Oh, is that still a thing?” That’s not meant as a criticism of Destruction All-Stars‘ inherent quality, but rather a reflection of how badly Sony fumbled this attempt to break into the live-service market. Initially released as a ludicrous $70 title, this vehicular combat game was immediately given away to PS Plus users, a decision that didn’t remotely build a sustainable community.
Within months, Lucid Games needed to add AI bots just to keep matches playable, as servers were so barren it felt like a community never existed. Destruction All-Stars was Sony’s first reality check for its live-service push, and the publisher didn’t heed the warning.
New World: Aeternum Becomes Old News on January 31, 2027
While this closure is still a ways off, New World: Aeternum is by far the biggest title shutting down over the next 6 months. Even after a Hail Mary rebranding attempt, Amazon’s massive open-world RPG ultimately struggled to retain enough players to warrant ongoing updates. Amazon has generally moved away from the MMO model in favor of third-party publishing, like Tomb Raider. New World is, well, old news at this point.
New World received its final major content in October 2025 with the Nighthaven update, and it is currently running on autopilot until January 2027. If you treat the game as a single-player action RPG, you can still get some joy out of the last few months, especially since all the expansions are now unlocked.
