Closed Gate: EA Cancels Dawngate

Jason Winter
By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted:
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Seems like every week, there's an announcement of a new MOBA coming out. Less frequently, we hear about one shutting down.

After 18 months of development, including six months of open beta, EA has decided that its MOBA Dawngate isn't up to snuff. Waystone Games' Matt Bromberg made the announcement today on the EA blog, saying that they would continue to operate the game for 90 more days and offer full refunds to anyone who spent money in the beta, with most refunds being processed in the next 10 days.

Bromberg offered little in terms of exact reasons for the cancellation, saying only that "although the game has grown, we’re not seeing the progress we’d hoped for. This isn’t the outcome we wanted, but beta testing is about learning and improving, and ultimately, about making difficult decisions about how to proceed."

Dawngate didn't seem to be generating the kind of buzz -- positive or negative -- that you'd expect from an EA product, so we're a little surprised by its abrupt termination. How about you? Did you give Dawngate a try, and did it seem ripe for the chopping block?

Update: If you still want to try Dawngate, everything's free!

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In this article: Dawngate, EA, Waystone Games.

About the Author

Jason Winter
Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

More Stories by Jason Winter

Discussion (27)

Raexau 9 years ago
sad to see it go, i had ALOT of fun actually the first moba i enjoyed playing .. >.> on the plus side i met allot of awsome people here. and for the reasoning of we didnt see the progress we hoped for ... here is an idea and idea that the community has been shouting at you for almost 14 of the 18 months we played "MAKE MORE COVERAGE AND ADVERTISE YOU DICKHEADS!!!!" and now see the fruits EA not getting moneys for something they did not ever advertise for .. with 60% of the gaming community these days unwilling to touch a game that is not finished yet.. awell great game bad business plan a great loss for the now yet again dull and boring moba world

Sadao 9 years ago
:/ Quite sad .. Dawngate is a really fun game and i don't see any similarities with other Mobas . That game was unique and really fun + easy to start ! I expected it to become a game like LoL but looks like they are shutting down . Thats just Sad.

Adrian87 9 years ago
The game had impressed me even in the first weekend of closed beta. I came back every other weekend and i had high hopes for it. I stopped playing after little over 200 matches, thinking i will come back when they increase the champions pool for even higher diversity.
I have been playing LoL for 4-5 years now and i really hoped Dawngate would replace it. The community was nicer then the other mobas i played (and i played almost all of them), the devs were awesome, the game was running great even on my weak PC and they had some great ideas for the game. It was a really enjoyable experience.
It is sad to see it go away.

Cyril 9 years ago
Too bad it's getting canceled. It was a pretty smooth MOBA and they really had some innovations going. By not generating enough buzz they mean not generating enough money. The skins, which lots of people in other MOBAs care about, weren't up to par with the actual game, but the game was very good.

Bic Boi 9 years ago
>EA
>Game canceled.

...HUEHUEHUEHUE

Android 9 years ago
GREAT NEWS, fak the faking brainless mobas!

GMALONZO 9 years ago
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Jason Guy 9 years ago
Dawngate was a refreshing welcome to the MOBA scene. After years of League with a rather cruddy self entitled community. Dawngate had me going "I'm a noob!" And not being told to drink bleach and uninstall the game. I was welcomed by other new players and we learned together. Up untill today I had hopes that Dawngate would make it in the long run. That it was just a slow start because 90% of the people I shared it with never heard of it. I think EA just didn't market it enough to generate a huge buzz. Dawngate could have made it I think if EA did their marketing job instead of just cowering because "We're EA and people hate us."

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Just saying 9 years ago
Strife Next!

View 1 reply
Dilan 9 years ago
I've played pretty much every MOBA there is, and the only non-Dota 2 or League MOBA worth playing was Dawngate. I'm not one of those publisher/developer haters who just says "EA? LOL the game is bad", no, I play each game, ignoring where it came from, and give it a proper judgement.

Dawngate was not a bad game. Far better than Strife. With more time and work, it could've rivaled at least Dota 2 in terms of player base ( probably not League, League's player base is just enormous ). It is also the only MOBA that managed to get me somewhat interested in its lore. Now I know in MOBAs, lore is largely irrelevant, but I'm just pointing out that it had some competent people working on it, and I would've preferred to have heard that retarded Strife was being cancelled. Once again, I don't say that because I have something against S2. I actually think S2 is a pretty cool team of people, which is why I expected a lot more from them when I initially heard of Strife. Then when I got my hands on it... giant disappointment.

But at the end of the day, 2015 is approaching, which means Gigantic is going to be here before we know it, which looks like a MOBA that will definitely raise the bar in this genre.

Piratedcopy 9 years ago
This was very disappointing as this game was extremely promising. It's much better than that Strife or Heroes of the Storm bullshit, being unique in a balanced way. This was one of the few MOBAs done RIGHT, next to Dota (2) and League of Legends. Regardless of clones or not, Dawngate was very unique and excellently made.

exaccuss 9 years ago
A new MOBA? Oh god no. It's getting cancelled? Oh god yes.

Tyer 9 years ago
Good. last thing we need is another moba with those retarded cam and controls like in lol / dota 2. acctualy, we do not need mobas at all.

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Zoren580 9 years ago
Well Ea youve officially managed to piss me off today

the6freak 9 years ago
This was one of the better mobas, easy to learn and a great dynamic meta. This saddens me, but was also expected from the beginning because EA.

Townes 9 years ago
Game was boring as hell, had even forgotten I still had it on the HDD.
Copying LOL is not the key to success, the key is doing something better. Otherwise people will just keep playing LOL.

carlos 9 years ago
i played for a while but since last week got some lag and i think its couz im from brazil. the thing is, i don't think they 're ready for a worldwide clients and i supose thats why they didnot published dawngate that much here or in other countries...but the game was going fine with defferent objectives and a fast game style. i dont know but maybe just didnot get like leaguoflegends, i mean everyone "i play lol", and if u does not, u're an "outfashion idiot" XD well, just my opinion. cya!

DougJunior 9 years ago
No lose, every second game is a LoL Clone and lol is trash.

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Mr Heartless 9 years ago
Thank goodness. Rubbish belongs in the bin. I wish more devs would take cue. *cough Shards of War cough*

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