Epic Games' Paragon will be shutting down in April. The company made the announcement on its official website in a heartfelt apology to the community and fans of multiplayer online battle arena players everywhere.
"It's with heavy hearts we've decided to close down Paragon," the statement begins. "After careful consideration, and many difficult internal debates, we feel there isn’t a clear path for us to grow Paragon into a MOBA that retains enough players to be sustainable."
The MOBA market was already crowded whenParagon entered the ring, but now that the craze has somewhat shifted to the insanely popular Battle Royale genre, it doesn't come as a surprise that Paragon is making way for Fortnite at Epic.
Paragon originally launched March 2016 on PlayStation 4 and PC as an Early Access title before heading into open beta later that August. The open beta originally cost players if they wanted to participate but was later altered to become a free-to-play game and doffed the premium charges. If you did decide to sink some cash into the game, you got a slew of upgrades and optional cosmetic items for your trouble.
Unfortunately, Paragon never came to fruition as a full-fledged retail release, nor was there ever a planned date for the game's debut. Epic Games is doing just fine, however, with the success of Fortnite and its Battle Royale spinoff, which is enjoying a massive, growing playerbase just since it hit the market in 2017, and it's still in Early Access. Without having to divert resources to Paragon, it's no doubt Epic will be able to spend time and money on Fortnite instead, and that game will continue to blossom.
If you invested in Paragon and spent money on any items or upgrades within the game, Epic has stated that it will be refunding all purchases across every platform. So no matter what you spent and no matter what you spent it on, you'll be able to request a refund directly through Epic Games via this request form.
If you enjoyed Paragon, it's time to pour one out for the MOBA. It had some interesting concepts, but it just wasn't meant to be. You can still play up to March 26, so if you want one last hurrah, you've still got some time.