Star Wars Hunters Announces Shut Down Just 9 Months After Launch, Steam Release Appears Scrapped

Star Wars Hunters publisher Zynga has announced plans for the game to shut down entirely just nine months after it was released, and it appears plans to launch a PC version of Steam are scrapped.

The NaturalMotion-developed, free-to-download team-based battle arena game launched on Nintendo Switch and iOS and Android in June 2024. IGN’s Star Wars: Hunters review returned a 7/10. We said: “Star Wars: Hunters’ lighthearted PvP fun is like a party at the Death Star: Impressive for a bit, but probably not a place you’ll want to hang around for too long.”

It seems the review was prescient, as Zynga announced that “after careful consideration” it had decided the final content update for Star Wars: Hunters across all platforms would be released on April 15, with the game remaining playable until October 1, 2025.

“We understand this news may be disappointing and want to assure you that this decision was not made lightly,” Zynga continued. “Your passion and dedication to the game and its community have meant the world to us, and we are committed to providing visibility and updates throughout the transition process.”

Here are the logistics: on March 25, Season 5 will be extended by three weeks. Zynga will re-run events and shop bundles from the Season, and the Ranked Season will also be extended, giving players more time to hit Kyber 1 rank.

On April 15, the game’s final content update will be released for free and in-game purchases will be disabled across all platforms. New Support Hunter, Tuya, will join the game as part of the final update. Tuya will be available and playable for all users immediately at no cost, along with a slate of additional in-game content. Zynga will continue to run a final Ranked Mode leaderboard for players to compete in and run all battlefields and game modes in rotation.

And then, on October 1, online servers will officially shut down, and Star Wars: Hunters will no longer be playable beyond this point.

There’s no mention of the PC version, which was announced to launch on Steam in early access form this year, in the shutdown notice. Its Steam page now includes a notice that the game is “no longer available on the Steam store.”

Take-Two-owned Zynga is best known for mobile games FarmVille, Words with Friends, and CSR Racing, but with Star Wars: Hunters it branched out to console for the first time. Similarly, Star Wars: Hunters was meant to be the first Zynga-published game to launch on PC.

“The success of Star Wars: Hunters on mobile and Nintendo Switch devices has led to our decision to expand the game to PC,” said Yaron Leyvan, executive vice president, games, at Zynga, back in November.

“This is something our community of fans have been asking for and we are very excited to welcome even more players to Vespaara. This moment also marks a milestone for Zynga as we bring one of our games to PC for the first time.”

There are still a number of Star Wars video games in the works, including Respawn Entertainment’s third Star Wars Jedi game and Bit Reactor’s turn-based tactics game set to be revealed at Star Wars Celebration 2025.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].