MapleStory 2 is less than two years old, but it has failed to find the audience of the original
The MapleStory franchise has been one of Nexon’s more notable properties with its MMO world of cartoonish and lighthearted aesthetic. The first game was hugely popular for a long time, and the second would eventually go live in 2018, but it has never quite found the love and enthusiasm of the original. To that end, the MapleStory 2 devs have announced that they are shutting down service on the game at the end of March.
The closure of MapleStory 2 was announced on the MapleStory 2 website on March 19, 2020. According to the statement written by the developers, service will be discontinued and shut down completely on March 27, 2020. This will mark the final update of the game and purchase of virtual currencies will also be discontinued. Although customer support will remain open for the next couple months following the final update and the game will still be free to play on the Nexon launcher, servers will altogether be shut down on the March 27 date.
MapleStory 2 went through quite a bit of rework that included adding a questionable battle royale mode and quite the revamp of major changes back in 2019 as the game continued to search for its own unique footing and audience. Unfortunately, it never quite got there and could not find the success the original MapleStory had.
Nonetheless, the MapleStory crew thanks those who stuck around for the long haul.
“We are forever grateful for your patience and dedication to MapleStory 2 as we tried to rework the game starting with Project New Leaf,” the MapleStory team wrote. “But ultimately we’ve decided that we will not be able to provide the type of service that would live up to your expectations. We took a hard look at the current state of the game and its future roadmap, and sadly reached the conclusion that it would be difficult to maintain long-term continuation of the game while remaining true to what made MapleStory 2 your MapleStory 2.”
Refunds on the virtual currencies in MapleStory 2 will be offered, and instructions on how to pursue qualifying refunds are available with the closing message. Unfortunately, this seems to be the end of the road for a Nexon’s colorful MMO for the timebeing.
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Source: https://www.shacknews.com/article/117025/maplestory-2-to-shut-down-by-end-of-march-2020