As the moon wanes, Shadowbane is no more

The developers of Shadowbane will shut down its servers for the last time on May 1st, 2009. The closure comes only weeks after its 6th year anniversary and a year after the historic "Shadowbane Reboot," which relaunched the game to take advantage of better stability and performance architecture.

Shadowbane launched in March 2003 and was a pioneer for open-PvP, political intrigue, and dynamic world content, where the player could actually have an affect on the game's environment. Unfortunately, the title was plagued by stability issues at release, which prevented it from ever becoming much more than a cult classic. The game saw two expansions in its lifetime: Rise of Chaos (Dec 2003) and Throne of Oblivion (Dec 2004).

Ownership of the MMO changed hands several times over its lifespan and while it originated as a subscription-based game, it eventually went free-to-play in March 2006 and finally ad-driven in March 2007. We're always sad to report the demise of an MMORPG, so let us leave you with the fond memories of one of Shadowbane's developers.

Thanks for being a sometimes inspiration and sometimes whipping-boy for the MMORPG genre, Shadowbane. May your soul be eternally bound to the Tree of Life.