Paragon Shutting Down April 26, Epic Offers Full Refunds

It was hinted at in a recent dev blog from Epic Games. We talked about it on the F2P Cast. And now, it's official: Paragon will shut down on April 26.

Epic Games posted a letter today announcing the news, saying that "there isn’t a clear path for us to grow Paragon into a MOBA that retains enough players to be sustainable" and that "We didn’t execute well enough to deliver on the promise of Paragon." That's pretty honest stuff, and it almost hurts to read it.

Even more surprisingly honest is the deal Epic is offering: a full refund to every player for every purchase made in the game, on any platform. It's an outstanding gesture, and one that's no doubt made possible by Fortnite Battle Royale's breakout success. When your "other" game brings in $89 million in a month, you can afford to be generous to fans, to try and keep their goodwill. You can find details on how to take advantage of this offer on the announcement page.

It was already edging shut, but I think that this effectively closes the door on the MOBA boom. Paragon couldn't make it, and neither could Master X Master or -- if you can remember this far back -- other titles with big names behind them, like Infinite Crisis or Dawngate. Meanwhile, Blizzard seems to be perpetually struggling to gain traction with Heroes of the Storm. If big companies and big names can't break through the three-way death grip that League of Legends, Dota 2, and Smite have on the genre, it's likely that nobody can.