Creating and supporting an MMO is a challenge that many companies have attempted to tackle, yet very few of them have ever managed to succeed at doing so. The competition is incredibly tough, the fast pace of content releases difficult to follow, and the playerbase harder and harder to keep engaged for months on end.

Unfortunately, it would appear that the "community crafted MMO" Worlds Adrift will be yet another MMO that has not made the cut as the developers have just announced they are closing down its doors. The reason, as you might imagine, is that it simply hasn't reached the level of popularity needed to keep it properly funded and supplied with content.

"We are immensely grateful for every Traveller that’s come to experience this community crafted world," reads the official update. "However, Worlds Adrift just hasn’t reached the level of popularity it needs to continue. The challenges that came with our ambitious project meant that all our work went into making the game work rather than making it the experience we wanted it to be. As a result we failed at making a game that could capture the imaginations of millions. Creating an MMO like Worlds Adrift is a huge financial commitment and unfortunately the game is just no longer commercially viable."

"Worlds Adrift will not be sailing quietly into the night. We will host an End of the World event which will be live streamed on Twitch and will feature an AMA with the team. The exact date and details of this event will be announced here and on our other community channels (Twitter,Facebook, Steam Forum and Discord) soon."

Besides the end of the world party, the developers are also giving away every single in-game shop item, as well as both of their previous games: Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread. So while it certainly does suck that Worlds Adrift will be closing down its doors, at least it'll be going down on a bit of a high note instead of simply fading away!

If you would like to learn a little bit more about Worlds Adrift, as well as why the developers have chosen to cancel it, you should head on over to the official website.