Free to play mech shooter Hawken isn’t long for this world. Reloaded Games has announced that it will be shutting down on PC in order to “refocus” its development efforts. Hawken will also be removed from the Steam store on January 2nd 2018 but currently, the DLC is already unavailable.

“It’s been an incredible journey since the introduction of Hawken on Steam, back in 2014. The game’s success has been largely due to your continuous support. The Hawken community has been the cornerstone of this ever-evolving franchise,” the developer stated on Facebook.

Hawken first started as an open beta in 2012 but later shifted to Steam Early Access in 2014. It would later release for Xbox One and PS4 in 2016 but development actually shifted from Adhesive Games to Reloaded Games (of APB fame) in 2015. It’s seen a number of changes, updates and new content since release. As per the developer at least, the community has also been fairly active.

Thus far, no information has been provided about the console versions and whether they’ll remain online. For that matter, even as Hawken is removed from Steam in January 2018, it remains to be seen if it will be available to play on PC till then.

Remember Hawken? it was a very promising free to play mech action/sim game for the PC in active development, until it ran into some troubles, and work on it was suspended. However, it appears now that the game will be re-entering the land of the living, thanks to the developers of APB: Reloaded, Reloaded Games, who have acquired the property.

“I’m pretty excited to now be able to announce that Reloaded Games is the new owner of Hawken,” New producer Joshua “capnjosh” Clausen of K2 Network said on Facebook.

“It’s a seriously great honor to be a part of the Hawken story, and I want to see it thrive.”

In addition to this, a list of update priorities for the game going forward was also shared on Facebook:

• Fix password reset
• Get Forums working again
• Fix more deployment stuff
• Fix a bunch of tools systems
• Fix more back end systems
• Plan new updates and future changes

Of course, it is not entirely sure what this might mean- while APB: Reloaded can certainly be viewed as a successful relaunch, there are some who feel Reloaded’s support for the game was and is lacking. It remains to be seen whether or not they can give Hawken the attention it deserves.

APB Reloaded is still popular according to new stats sent by the studio. They say that the game is still popular and is among the top 5 titles on Steam, and that’s for the free-to-play category, where there’s isn’t a staunch competition.

The studio mentioned that as of the beginning of the first quarter of 2013, APB Reloaded resides as the fourth most-popular free2play game offered by Steam, besting gaming juggernauts and iconic brands like Lord of the Rings Online, Star Trek Online, and DC Universe.

“Being a visionary publisher usually means that everyone continually tells you that you won’t succeed, and the run-away global popularity of APB Reloaded is validation that we have found something very special in the free2play space,” said Reloaded Games’ Chief Marketing Officer Rahul Sandil.

“Industry pundits decried our decision to secure the rights to All Points Bulletin and make the game free2play. Game critics and non-supporters doomed APB Reloaded to obscurity once we officially launched, yet here we are, a year later, with global sell-through of the retail version in Europe, licensed distribution in Brazil and Russia, and the game remains a top five most-popular downloaded game on Steam.”

APB Reloaded will be getting more updates like Settling the Score, with an improved District instancing mechanic, a new scoring system that balances arrests, kills and mission objectives, and new way for players to choose their own spawn point after death.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

APB was released last year on this date and this calls for a celebration. Reloaded Productions, the wholly-owned creative development studio of Reloaded Games, announced this news today.

They praised the game a lot and call it a “legendary among online games”. It has outperformed other games like Star Trek Online, Age of Empires Online, LOTRO and DC Universe. Not sure that is a great achivement but it’s their birthday so I’ll shut up for now.

Players logging in from now till Dec 9th will get a free Cigar and “Celebrate” emote for every character that logs in. One of the hottest weapons in the game, the ATAC 424 NCFP 3, is also being discounted for a very limited time.

“We want to thank our player community and our friends at Steam for all the support and love they have shown APB Reloaded for the last year,” said Rahul Sandil, Chief Marketing Officer for Reloaded Games.

“With over 3 million downloads delivered, APB has established itself as one of the hottest game franchises in the online games industry. Over the next few days we will be making other exciting announcements about the expansion of the APB Franchise, so stay tuned.”

We reviewed the game, which you can check out here. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.