NetEase, China’s number 2 biggest gaming company, today announced that its MOBA title Vainglory is shutting down on 28 July. Developed by Super Evil Mega Corp as its first game, Vainglory famously did not make any profits which forced the team to pivot. By pivot, we mean abandoning development of Vainglory to work on something else with new investor money. This April, less than 6 months into the deal, publisher Rogue Games announced it is shutting down Vainglory for good. This caused NetEase to lose all faith in the project.
Vainglory will live on under Super Evil Mega Corp as a “Community Edition” where many features will be removed. This bare-bone version will mainly be supported by community servers once the features are removed. All in all, someone over in Super Evil Mega Corp is really, really good in getting investors to part with their millions despite wasting tens of millions thus far. Hopefully, Project Spellfire will be much more successful. Stay tuned!
