Released in 2014, Loadout is a free-to-play competitive shooter with a focus on ridiculous weaponry. Our reviewer loved it upon release, writing that its "gun customization and well executed twists on shooter staples make it a free-to-play game that doesn't feel like a compromise".
But it won't be around much longer. A spokesperson for studio Edge of Reality announced today that Loadout will go permanently offline on May 24. The reason? New European Union privacy regulations set to become enforceable on May 25 would require a fair bit of work done on the game in order to be compliant. The studio can't afford it.
"The well-intended GDPR legislation creates major burdens for small companies to do business in the EU," the announcement post reads. "We don't have the resources to update Loadout to GDPR compliance, and a big portion of Loadout players come from the EU.
"Sadly, while big companies have the resources to comply with the GDPR, that's not always the case for small businesses. We still protect your privacy, and we wouldn't dream of doing otherwise. We just don't have the resources to overhaul Loadout and implement new features to meet a large list of new requirements."
Meanwhile, the cloud provider used by Loadout is also ending service, with the announcement speculating that perhaps "GDPR may also be a factor".
"Porting Loadout to use their new product is a major undertaking, and we don't have the resources to do that," the announcement said. Meanwhile, a pattern of cloud providers being discontinued means that server costs have increased, while income from Loadout has remained flat.
"This just put Loadout deep into the red, losing an alarming mount of money per month".
If you're keen to try Loadout before it goes down, you've got a couple of weeks to do so. Here's some footage:
