Deep Realms was an incredibly good role playing game for Facebook – at least that’s what I’ve heard. It earned a perfect score here on Gamezebo, made its way on to our list of the best Facebook games of 2011, and appeared on countless other best of the year lists too. So why haven’t I played it myself? Because when I finally say down to dive into Deep Realms depths today, I discovered that the game is no longer available for play.
Deep Realms was an incredibly good role playing game for Facebook – at least that’s what I’ve heard. It earned a perfect score here on Gamezebo, made its way on to our list of the best Facebook games of 2011, and appeared on countless other best of the year lists too. So why haven’t I played it myself? Because when I finally say down to dive into Deep Realms depths today, I discovered that the game is no longer available for play.
Less than a year after its debut, Playdom has quietly killed the game from Facebook. If you try to visit the page that previously housed it, you’ll be presented with a message that reads as follows;
We regret to inform you that, the development of Deep Realms will no longer be continued. In order to innovate and develop the most addicting social games on the planet, the creators of Deep Realms will be focused on new challenges in order to bring even more exciting games to life. We value your loyalty and hope that you will enjoy these new games.
This isn’t the first time that Playdom has decided to bring one of their offerings to a close. Social City and ESPNU College Town both went offline in December, and Market Street went offline only a few months before that. But being such a critical success, we can’t help but wonder how it failed to gain the traction needed to stay alive.
The game’s untimely demise wasn’t meant to be a secret, either, as players were notified of the situation back in December, and the game appears to have been shut down for more than a month at this point. On January 18th to be exact. But with the exception of some lamenting players on the Playdom forums, there doesn’t seem to be a peep of information about it anywhere online. Is it possible that a game that the press so universally applauded back in March fell so far off of everyone’s radar that it’s death went completely unnoticed? As unbelievable as that may sound, this seems to be the case. Then again, Degrassi‘s “Wheels” was dead for four years before anybody in the press noticed, so I suppose nothing surprises me anymore.
On the upside, Deep Realms fans have another Playdom-powered RPG to look forward to in the coming days/weeks/months. Marvel: Avengers Alliance should be hitting Facebook sometime soon, and as we’ve mentioned in our hands-on preview, it’s quite good. Let’s just hope this one gets enough players that Playdom will see it as a keeper.
