Tera shutting down might be the last thing you want if you're a fan, but unfortunately, it looks like that's what's happening. According to PC publisher Gameforge, developer Bluehole will be shutting down Tera (on PC, at least) so that it can focus on other projects.
Why is Tera shutting down?
Per an announcement on the official Tera Steam page, Tera developer Bluehole has decided to stop supporting the game in order to "focus their internal development efforts on other projects". Gameforge says that it would happily have continued to support the Tera community, but that Bluehole's decision means it can't do that anymore. Servers for Tera on PC will shut down on June 30th, with new account registrations and Tera Club purchases being deactivated on May 31st.
It's often the case that servers for games will be shut down when they're essentially ghost towns. Recently, Microsoft shut down servers for the Xbox 360 versions of the Halo games, citing the fact that they're all available to play via the Master Chief Collection. Servers for Skate 2 were also shut down recently, presumably because nobody was playing the game on Xbox 360 and PS3 anymore. In the case of Tera, though, the game recently received a pretty major content update, and there's even a brand new Tera Pass available for purchase within the game's store that was launched only a few weeks ago.
Will this apply to the console versions of Tera?
Gameforge's statement leaves a number of questions unanswered. We don't know whether this shutdown will also affect the console versions of Tera; after all, Bluehole publishes those itself under its parent company Krafton's name. According to Gameforge, Bluehole made the decision to stop supporting Tera itself, but it's not clear whether that just relates to the PC version. The official FAQ for the announcement is somewhat ambiguous on this point as well; Gameforge doesn't say that the shutdown is PC-only, but does say "Tera will be shut down globally on PC" without referencing the console versions of the game. One thing's for sure, though: in June this year, Tera on PC is dead. We've reached out to Gameforge and Bluehole for clarification on this.
Despite the ambiguity surrounding the console situation, we do know a few things. If you've made purchases, you won't be eligible for a refund, but you will be able to grab a "partial refund" for a Tera Club membership if you contact Gameforge post-shutdown. Your Gameforge account will still be valid for games like NosTale or the newly free-to-play Swords of Legends Online, but you won't be able to migrate your Tera stuff, although you can still spend your Thalers until the servers close. Gameforge says the Tera website, forum, and social media pages will all shut down, although again, it's not clear whether they mean all pages or just the ones they control. We'll bring you more on this, including answers to some of the most pressing questions in this story, as and when we get it.
