One of the PlayStation Vita’s best (though there aren’t that many) FPS games can no longer be played via online multiplayer following the quiet closure of its servers.
Players began to report that Killzone: Mercenary’s online multiplayer was no longer accessible, leading to Comic Book to receive confirmation from PlayStation Support that the game’s servers had been shut down.
This is, honestly, a huge shame. I played Mercenary a while back when I first picked up my Vita, and while I would struggle to say the lobbies were bursting at the seams, I could still find matches fairly quickly. What I played was actually quite great fun, that same kill noise just as satisfying on the go as on console.
The problem was likely the Vita itself, which never exactly excelled in sales, it selling roughly 16 million units compared to the PSP’s 80 million. While the portable is great these days for indie games and the like thanks to cross-buy, it’s now not supported by Sony at all — and you could argue that it never really was.
The lack of official word from Sony themselves is a little slapdash as well, especially as they have previously given plenty of warning for games like Drawn To Death and Driveclub going offline.
Worse still, you can currently buy the game from the PlayStation Store for $20 with there being no mention of its multiplayer being inaccessible. In fact, the listing still mentions it as a big selling point:
Robust Multiplayer: Intense combat for up to 8 players keeps the competition fierce.
Customize Across Modes: Customize your Merc’s loadout in Campaign and Multiplayer modes with armor, weapons and more. Customizations to your Merc apply to both modes!
With the upcoming release of the PlayStation 5, the days of the PS4’s Shadow Fall, a decent but not brilliant launch title, are likely up as well. Sounds like a good time to announce a next-gen Killzone, doesn’t it?
Whatever the case, always remember one thing:
Long live the Vita.
In other PlayStation 5 news, it looks like there’s a tonne of new games inbound for it, as well as an upcoming showcase of what we have to look forward to.
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