WildStar developer Carbine Studios is shutting down

NCSoft has confirmed reports that it's shutting down WildStar developer Carbine Studios, and that support for the sci-fi MMO will come to an end.

In a statement provided to Kotaku, NCSoft said that it was closing Carbine Studios, as of September 7th, and that it was beginning the process of winding down WildStar in order to "ultimately shutter the game". The publisher noted that it was still identifying the teams that would be responsible for bringing WildStar to a close.

"These decisions are very difficult to make", it said, "and we are in the midst of shifting as many of our teammates as possible into other roles within the organization." NCSoft also confirmed that it would be refunding any purchases that WildStar players have made between July 1st this year and the date that the MMO's payment system is shut off.

Carbine Studios was established in 2005 by a number of ex-Blizzard developers, predominantly from the World of Warcraft team. Its first game, sci-fi MMO WildStar, launched on PC in 2014, receiving a largely warm reception on arrival.

Almost a year later, in May 2015, Carbine announced that WildStar would be ditching its traditional monthly subscription model, and would become free-to-play that autumn. Six months after the changeover, almost half of the studio was laid off. At the time, NCSoft explained that the cuts were "directly tied to WildStar's evolution from a product in development to a live title, to the cancellation of work to bring WildStar to China, and to the overall performance of WildStar since launch in 2014".