Thus endeth the tragic life of online hero-based arena shooter Battleborn by Gearbox Software, as 2K Games announced that it will be shutting down the game’s servers permanently in January 2021. This news was revealed via the publisher’s official Twitter account and on its official website.

[1/3] Today we have begun the process of gradually sunsetting Battleborn. Starting February 24, 2020, you will no longer be able to purchase virtual currency for use in the game.

— Battleborn (@Battleborn) November 25, 2019

The process will gradually be implemented, as players will no longer be able to purchase the game’s premium virtual currency (Platinum) starting from 24 February 2020. However, they can still spend whatever remaining Platinum they still have until the servers eventually shut down in January 2021.

Nothing else in Battleborn will change until its scheduled shutdown, so players will still be able to play the game for about a year from now. Unfortunately, the game has already been removed from all digital storefronts at the time of writing, including Steam, PlayStation Store, and the Xbox Games Store.

2K claims that the reason why they’re shutting down Battleborn is to “focus their efforts and resources on other projects”. The game initially launched back in May 2016 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, giving it several weeks’ worth of a head start over Blizzard’s Overwatch.

Battleborn went on to receive mixed reviews, with many critics calling out the game for being too complex and difficult for newcomers. The player base rapidly declined, as almost everyone compared the game to the arguably more newcomer-friendly Overwatch for their hero-based arena shooter fix (Blizzard also has a much larger marketing budget than 2K Games, so there’s also that).

The game then went free-to-play about a year later in June 2017, but that didn’t help the game much, as it was the same method 2K Games used for Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve, and we all know what happened to that ill-fated game (it faded into obscurity before 2K Games pulled the plug and shut down its servers).

Battleborn‘s final content update arrived in October 2017, and it seemed like the game was destined to follow in the footsteps of Evolve before it. Fast-forward almost two years later to the present day and that’s exactly what’s happening as we speak.

Kudos to the folks at Gearbox Software for pouring their heart and soul into Battleborn, which essentially came at just the wrong time.