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Gazillion Entertainment, developers of online action RPG Marvel Heroes, has closed its doors.
Marvel Heroes was due to close on December 31, however rumblings suggested that the game would be shutting down as early as last Friday, with a rash of layoffs at Gazillion leaving many employees jobless before Thanksgiving.
However, players managed to keep at the game throughout the weekend, with news of closure coming via a tweet from the Marvel Heroes Omega account late on Monday night.
— Marvel Heroes Omega (@MarvelHeroes) November 27, 2017
The above tweet says: ““It is with great sadness that we announce the closing of Gazillion Entertainment,” says a brief announcement on Twitter. “As a result, we are no longer able to operate Marvel Heroes Omega until December 31 as originally planned. Instead, Marvel Heroes Omega will be sunset immediately on all platforms and will no longer be available as soon as this process is completed. The company would like to sincerely thank its fans and employees for all the support over years of development and live service.”
As a result of Gazillion’s closure, Marvel Heroes has been sunset and has now vanished like tears in the rain, and servers on the PC and console are offline, in addition to the game’s website.
Gazillion’s sudden shutdown means that players who were lobbying for refunds in the light of Marvel Heroes closure are now left without many options. Console players, where the game has been live for less than year, are able to claim refunds from Microsoft but Sony haven’t yet followed suit. On the PC, where the game has been out significantly longer, it seems there’s not many options for players who feel shortchanged.
Worse, employees who have been laid off were reportedly stiffed out of both their severance and holiday pay as a result of the company’s insolvency. There’s never a good time to get the boot from a role without any of what you’re owned, but this is a particularly bitter pill to swallow in the run up to the holiday season. These employees, sadly, are left in the same situation as the game’s customers, out of pocket and with no real avenue to seek recompense.
