Carbine Studios’ PC MMO Wildstar will be shutting down later this year. This news comes shortly after it was announced that the developers themselves will be closing its doors earlier this month. The company was founded by various former Blizzard employees. The game was released in 2014 with a subscription-based model but shifted to a free-to-play one in 2015.
Carbine Studios announced that Wildstar will be ending on November 28, 2018, in a blog post today. The company will be disabling any further real money purchases or Steam purchases. The company has added that they will refund any transactions for in-game services that were made prior to July 1 of this year. The refunds will be processed by October 3. Steam users will receive their refunds either through their Steam Wallet or the payment method they used.
To ensure that players will still enjoy their time with Wildstar, the developers have also updated the game for the final time. This will add various changes and features to the game that will hopefully make its closure easier for fans. The update will firstly gift all players Signature status, which is the paid tier of the MMO. Secondly, all ProtoBucks (the currency received through real-money purchases) will be converted into Omnibits, which is the general currency used in the game. Finally, the various drop rates of the game will be increased to allow players to obtain higher level gear easier.
In addition to this, Carbine Studios will also be running various events leading up to the game’s closure. The first of these has already begun and will reward players with double EXP until November 28. The other events will be occurring more frequently than before. The developers have added that all seasonal items will also be available in the store.
Wildstar garnered an overall positive reception on release, receiving a Metacritic score of 82 out of 100. Our own review gave it a 4 out of 5, praising its combat and its “wide breadth of content.”
