Servers for online dino shooter Second Extinction to shut down next year

Second Extinction developer Systemic Reaction has announced it is ending active development on the game. The game's servers will remain online for now, but Systemic Reactions plans to shut them down next year.

Second Extinction is a co-op, online shooter set in a futuristic world where mutated dinosaurs threaten humans. It released in early access for PC in 2020, and Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in 2021. The game's 1.0 version was meant to release late last year, but "critical" and "show-stopping" issues caused the studio to delay it.

"Unfortunately, it became clear that our small team lacked the resources necessary to hit our quality targets," Systemic Reaction said on Steam, "and the investment needed to do so was too large for us to bear". As such, the developer has decided to cancel the game's full release.

Second Extinction has now been removed from sale on Steam and the Microsoft Store. The game remains playable for those who already own it both as a multiplayer or single-player experience. "We will eventually take the servers down later next year," Systemic Reaction said, "but we'll communicate this well in advance once we have more information". As it currently stands the game is always online, so once the servers are shut down it'll be permanently unplayable.

Systemic Reaction stressed there will be no layoffs associated with the shutdown of Second Extinction. "The passion, talent, and skill of the team who worked on Second Extinction is being put to good use on other projects across [parent company] Avalanche Studios Group." However, the team won't be adding an offline mode to Second Extinction, which would allow owners of the game to continue playing it once the servers are shut, as the studio said it doesn't have the resources to do so.