Strategic shooter 'Gigantic' will shut down in July

It's been a rough ride for free-to-play MOBA Gigantic. Following a rough development history, developer Motiga announced late in 2017 that it was shutting down. At the time, Motiga said that Gigantic would continue to be operated by a maintenance team until "it doesn't make sense anymore." Now, it appears that time has arrived, as the remaining team has announced Gigantic shut down on July 31.

According to the team, Gigantic didn't manage to attract enough players to keep the game operating. The failure to hit its stride, combined with a lack of "viable options to sustain" the game, has led to its shutdown. From the announcement:

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.

For those who wish to continue playing through the end of Gigantic's life, however, all heroes will be free and purchases for Rubies and Hero Packs will be disabled through the game's shutdown on July 31.

Gigantic's shutdown follows its rough development history. The game was originally due to be published by Microsoft, but that deal seemed to fall through after a number of layoffs at Motiga ahead of launch. Perfect World later assumed publishing duties and acquired Motiga. After being hit with delays, Gigantic finally launched in July of 2017 for Xbox One and PC.

If you want to get some last matches in between now and July 31, Gigantic is still available to download and play from the Microsoft Store, Xbox Store, and Steam.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl