The free multiplayer game Warhaven from the MMO giant Nexon aimed to be like Call of Duty with knights. But after 4 months on Steam, poor reviews, and even worse player numbers, Nexon gives up on the mission. The medieval game will permanently shut down its servers in April 2024.
What kind of game is Warhaven?
- Warhaven takes place in a medieval setting with a fantasy twist. There are surprisingly many images of cats in knight armor for the game.
- Up to 24 players compete against each other in PvP matches. The battles take place in modes familiar from shooters such as Capture the Flag, Domination, or Team Deathmatch.
- The game was released as a Free2Play title on September 21, 2023, on Steam.
Little hype and then the players disappeared
What were the player numbers like? It started poorly and quickly became disastrous:
- At launch, Warhaven had a peak of 8,850 concurrent players
- But by November 2023, nearly all were gone – the average was only 375. Far too few for a Free2Play game
What do the reviews say? With 58% positive reviews, one plays for the golden pineapple on Steam: Such a rating attracts no one.
In the reviews, a player with 168 hours primarily criticizes the balance of Warhaven: The hammer is far too strong as a weapon, while the spear is far too weak.
Others criticize that the game was better in beta than at release. The squad size has been reduced, and players can only appear as Immortal once per game, which was the fun part of the game.
In such a game, a death spiral occurs: When so few people play, the servers are empty, and you wait too long for a match to start. Exactly this is criticized by a user on January 25, shortly before Nexon announced the end of Warhaven.
How does it end now? Nexon has announced that they will close the game on April 5, 2024.
More about the game: Steam: New medieval game is like Call of Duty with knights
