PlanetSide Arena Shutting Down In January, Offers Full Refunds

Exactly one year after its public announcement -- and three months after entering open beta -- Daybreak Game Company has announced that PlanetSide Arena is shutting down. The announcement came down yesterday afternoon via the game's Steam page:

While our team set out with an ambitious vision for a game that combined the massive-scale combat and camaraderie of PlanetSide through a diverse collection of new game modes, it has become clear after several months in Early Access that our population levels make it impossible to sustain the gameplay experience we envisioned.

PlanetSide Arena's population levels have certainly been its downfall. While it did decent numbers in its first couple of weeks, peaking at over 1,500 players online at once, it dropped off sharply thereafter, to the point that full, 300-person battles could only be achieved at set times that coincided with a promotion by Daybreak. Over the past two months, the game has struggled to even manage to keep its population in the double digits.

The servers will shut down on Jan. 10 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time. Until then, you can spend your currency in the game but not purchase any more currency or the DLC packages. If you purchased DLC or virtual currency, you'll receive a refund to your Steam Wallet shortly after the shutdown. That's at least some consolation to people who spent money in the game, though one might point to an old adage about fools and their money being parted.