(Photo : Heroic Leap Games, Hi-Rez Studios / Screenshot taken from Steam)
Hi-Rez Studios just announced that it would be shutting down the servers for Realm Royale Reforged and Divine Knockout in February 2025.
The two multiplayer games will officially be off the market on Feb. 17, 2025. The news of the closures was announced in similar posts that were shared on each game's Steam page. They were written by their developers, Mojo Games and Red Beard Games.
Hi-Rez Studios To Shut Down Two Games
The two studios cited that their parent company's, Hi-Rez Studios, recent reorganization was the main reason for the development. Reports earlier this month noted that the parent company underwent an unspecified number of layoffs of its workers.
Realm Royale Reforged and Divine Knockout will no longer be available on digital storefronts following their scheduled closures. This means that players will not be able to buy them or any related content, including their DLC, according to Games Industry.
Hi-Rez Studios effectively made the two multiplayer games free-to-play a few months ago and players who own them can still play them until they shut down next year. CEO Stewart Chisam said earlier this month saying that the decisions were difficult but necessary.
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He noted that they were made in order to make sure that the company gains long-term success as it shifts its focus on supporting Smite 2. The team plans to help the sequel have a long and sustainable future.
Realm Royale Reforge and Divine Knockout both remained online for quite some time, with the latter having two years and the former lasting for six years. While they may not be the longest-running games of the studio, it's still a disappointing development for fans, MassivelyOP said.
Realm Royale Reforged's History
Early access for the original Realm Royale was released in 2018 on Steam and it went on to have its open beta in early 2019. The game's Reforged update happened in 2022 and brought with it a lot of new mechanics. These came from its earlier stages that many people in the community enjoyed.
That particular update also resulted in various improvements and features that many gamers are familiar with today. The Reforged update caused a sudden spike in player count and caused the game to have a "mostly positive" review rating on Steam.
However, it was never able to achieve stellar player counts despite having a relatively strong start of more than 105,000 concurrent players. But in recent times, Realm Royale Reforged only has several hundreds of concurrent players based on data from SteamDB, according to PCGamer.
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