I'm not sure if its because of bad marketing, unfortunate circumstances, or whatever else, but this is the first time I've even heard of Magicka: Wizard Wars, a free-to-play multiplayer version of one of the best "make your friends hate you" co-op games out there, Magicka.

Sadly it doesn't appear I will ever get to know it because Paradox has just announced that the Magicka: Wizard Wars servers will be shutting down in three months after failing to even cover server costs for 9 months straight. Here's the brief announcement message:

"When the decision came to halt development on the game we left the servers open so that our small but passionate player base could still continue to enjoy the game as it was, we hope that this has been a fun time for you all (the odd server gremlin aside)! Unfortunately though we have reached the point where we can’t economically justify to continue running the costly server infrastructure. To make things clear, these last 9 months haven’t been a money-making exercise for us (for the most part server costs weren’t covered) we simply wanted to let those of you who loved the game play for as long as was possible.

Wizard Wars was a project close to our hearts, and although the original Dev team are now working on other projects within the Paradox organization We still have fond memories! Finally a big thanks from all of us who’ve worked on the project, to you, the fans. The passion and feedback from you throughout the whole development of the game has been nothing short of awesome!"

As I mentioned above, the servers will remain open for a period of three months from today, and until then all of the items that were previously locked away behind real-money purchases will now be either gone, or available through in-game means.

And to end all of this one a somewhat happy note, the team will attempt to introduce any old content they've had on the backburner, so you may see some new bits and pieces appear over the next few months, though don't take any of this as a guarantee.

While Wizard Wars may soon fade away, at least its silly trailers will remain: