GameTap pulls plug on Myst Online
Even a new lease on life couldn't ultimately save Uru Live, as GameTap announced today that it will soon be discontinuing operation of Myst Online, the ambitious multiplayer adventure from Cyan Worlds.
In a post on the GameTap forums by Ricardo Sanchez, Vice President of Content and Creative Director for the popular broadband entertainment network, it was revealed today that the Myst Online game servers will remain active for another 60 days, after which time the title will be completely removed from GameTap's service. Citing "business reasons rather than due to any issues regarding the design and vision", Sanchez claimed that GameTap had been considering "a wide variety of possibilities for maintaining the game" before ultimately reaching the unfortunate decision to cancel the game entirely.
For the ill-fated Uru and its fans, this is not the first death knell sounded for the game. Originally launched by Ubisoft as part of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, the experimental online component never moved beyond what amounted to a public beta before being prematurely cancelled. While dedicated fans held a skeletal version of the game together in a project called "Until Uru", Cyan Worlds underwent a highly publicized downsizing that seemingly spelled the end of the company. Before long, however, work at Cyan resumed, and news later followed that the game would be reborn as a GameTap exclusive and renamed Myst Online: Uru Live.
On GameTap, which expanded its service internationally to provide greater access to the game, Myst Online was revamped into an episodic model with coordinated story and gameplay updates each month. The final episode of "season one" was launched in early November, and for fans anxiously anticipating further news of another season, today's announcement will come as a particularly bitter blow.
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