Another Live-Service Shooter Just Died Weeks After Launch
Yet another live-service shooter is shutting down after launching only a few weeks ago. XL Games’ The Cube, Save Us will be ending its service on May 8, after arriving on Steam on March 18.
The free-to-play extraction shooter developer posted on April 8 about the news, saying that it’s “heartbreaking that we have to deliver unfortunate news to the Raiders.”
While they never said why they’re shutting down services, many believe it’s because of low engagement, especially with PC Gamer reporting the game hit a peak of 5,177 concurrent players on day one before slipping into the low hundreds.
The Steam page also shows that the game is “Mostly Negative.” Many have complained about how the game is mostly a cash grab, and there are way too many bugs in the game to make it playable.
According to the developers, “All eligible purchases will be automatically refunded in full without the need for any separate inquiry or request.”
Another Shooter Hits the Wall
Live-service shooters have had a tough time recently, with big releases stumbling and ending up shut down. Two big examples include Concord and Highguard. According to Gamespot, Hawked, a Fortnite-like shooter, announced in March that they’re shutting down later this year.
There have been a lot of live-service shooters that have come out lately, and it seems that developers are having a hard time keeping up with the excitement and demand of players.
Even big names in the gaming industry are having problems with their live-service content. For instance, Epic Games just laid off staff and raised V-Buck prices to help them keep up with demand.
But even with games shutting down, there are still a few standing strong. For instance, Call of Duty: Warzone is still going strong with Activision pushing out a new season on April 2. Along with that, Apex Legends remains one of the top live-service games, with EA’s ALGS site calling 2026 “Year 6” and promoting a $7 million prize pool with three global LAN events.
When it comes to extraction shooters, Arc Raiders is still at the top since its release in 2025. Embark Studios just released an update with plenty of fixes and improvements to keep the game relevant and fresh.
While another live-service shooter shut down, there are plenty of games out there that have proven that the key to success is keeping up with updates and the demand of players. While the market is slowly becoming oversaturated, that’s the brutal risk in 2026.
