Mojang’s Scrolls – not to be confused with The Elder Scrolls – is shutting down. The game managed to pull itself out of beta, but it doesn’t look to be faring very well now. They’ve recently reached their two-year mark, but may not go on for much longer.
The developer, best known for creating Minecraft, writes on the Scrolls website:
“After much deliberation, we’ve come to an important decision that we’d like to share: Echoes will be the last major content patch for Scrolls. We won’t be adding features or sets from now on, though we are planning to keep a close eye on game balance.”
They go on to thank their loyal members, many of whom have been around since the game’s release. It’s not that the developers don’t enjoy working on Scrolls; it’s just that the game has arrived at a point where it’s no longer practical to continue development.
Not mentioned in their entry is the low playerbase, a fact that even the players themselves are aware of. It’s possible that this had a hand in Mojang’s decision to shut down the project, but they’re not letting on. They know that many players jumped into Scrolls expecting it to be a hit like Minecraft, and while many have left, a solid albeit smaller community remains.
Scrolls players won’t have to say a hasty goodbye, though; the dev team assures players that the servers will stay up until at least July 1st, 2016, and that all future proceeds will go toward keeping Scrolls playable for as long as possible. It’s a minor consolation, but it should be ample time for players to exhaust everything they can do in-game.
