The Pokemon Company and developer TiMi have announced that Pokemon Unite is shutting down in Belgium and the Netherlands, effective late next year (yes, you read that correctly).
According to Serebii.net, the Pokemon-themed MOBA will no longer be taking registrations and membership renewals after October 31st this year, nor will it continue selling in-game Aeos gems.
Following that, the game will become unavailable for play in Belgium and the Netherlands on November 30th next year. That means you'll have around 13 months to continue playing it after registrations end if you're in either of those countries.
Serebii's account is corroborated by a number of Dutch and Belgian Pokemon Unite players over in this Reddit thread, many of whom say they received a notice that Pokemon Unite is shutting down shortly after applying a new update to the game.
While the notice itself doesn't seem to give any reason for the game's shutdown in these countries, it's almost certainly due to their especially strict laws regarding loot boxes and gacha mechanics in games.
Games as high-profile as FIFA (now known as EA Sports FC) and Rocket League, as well as titles developed by Nintendo, have fallen foul of Belgian loot box laws in the past.
Things aren't much different in the Netherlands on this front; back in 2020, the Dutch government heavily penalized EA over the presence of loot boxes in the Ultimate Team mode of what was then known as FIFA.
Again, The Pokemon Company and TiMi haven't explicitly stated that Belgium and the Netherlands' restrictive loot box laws are the reason for Pokemon Unite's shutdown in those areas.
It's also worth noting that this won't affect Pokemon Unite's operation in other areas, so if you're still playing the game in the US, the UK, or anywhere else it hasn't yet been discontinued, you'll be fine.
Pokemon Unite is available to play for free right now on Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. Stay tuned for more.
