Paragon can't catch a break: Less than two years after being brought back to life, it's closing again
The original MOBA was shut down in 2018, but was resurrected at the end of 2022 as Paragon: The Overprime.
Paragon: The Overprime, the game that launched from the rubble of Epic's ill-fated MOBA Paragon, has suffered the same fate as its predecessor. Developer Netmarble announced today that the game will be shuttered for good in April.
Paragon launched into early access in 2016 but it failed to make a splash with players. Epic made some big changes over its short life in the hopes of bringing players around, but the sudden success of Fortnite derailed that work and in early 2018 Epic pulled the plug. A few months later it made a pile of Paragon assets free on the Unreal Engine Marketplace, and it wasn't too long before multiple new MOBA projects based on Paragon were in the works.
One of those projects got Epic's permission to use the Paragon branding, and thus was born Paragon: The Overprime, a free-to-play team-based "action MOBA" that launched into early access in December 2022. But like its predecessor, it failed to win over fans, and player counts quickly tumbled. And now Netmarble, like Epic, has seen enough.
"Since Early Access, Paragon: The Overprime has been a work in progress, as we've continued to explore, iterate, and think about different ways to meet our Warriors' expectations," the studio announced today (via Wario64). "After careful consideration, we concluded that we will not be able to provide a stable and satisfying service moving forward. Because of this, we have made the decision to end the service on Monday, April 22nd, 2024."
Well, it was worth a shot. It's unfortunate to see a game closed, but I think it's fair to say that Paragon: The Overprime was facing an uphill battle right from the start. The original Paragon showed promise but it's best known as the game that got steamrolled by Fortnite, and while that particular stroke of incredibly bad luck isn't an issue now, the field of live service games jockeying for attention (and money) is more crowded than ever—and for some, it's really starting to wear thin.
Ironically, the Paragon: The Overprime shutdown announcement comes a couple days after Gearbox announced the coming resurrection of MOBA-hero shooter Gigantic, which went into full release in 2017 and shut down a year later. It's coming back on April 9 as Gigantic: Rampage Edition.
In-game purchases in Paragon: The Overprime will be disabled today, while the Overprime website, Discord, and social media channels will be closed on April 29—Netmarble urged players to save anything they may want to keep before that happens. Customer support for the game will end on August 22.