NetEase just pulled the plug on another promising MMO, and this one stings. Jackalyptic Games, the studio founded by City of Heroes and Star Trek Online legend Jack Emmert, is closing its doors after three and a half years of work on an unannounced Warhammer MMO. The game never got a proper reveal, never had a trailer, and now it never will. Developers are calling it devastating, and they’re not allowed to even show what they built.
The announcement came last week when Emmert posted on LinkedIn that the partnership with NetEase was ending. He didn’t explicitly say the studio was shutting down, but developers quickly confirmed the worst. Senior UI engineer Joseph Sierejko wrote that his time at Jackalyptic and the studio as a whole is coming to an end. Sound engineer Ben Dahl said the majority of the studio is now looking for new work, adding that devastated doesn’t even begin to cover it.
What the Developers Are Saying
The responses from the development team paint a picture of a passionate group who believed they were building something special. Sierejko explained that the last two and a half years were easily the most informative of his entire career, thanks to the insane talent his colleagues exhibited. His only real regret is that no one will get to see the amazing work everyone did over the course of the project.
Ben Dahl, part of the game’s two-person audio team, shared similar sentiments. He and his colleague spent years working on sound design, cinematic music composition, and more for the project. Despite the heartbreak, Dahl praised his fellow team members, saying there’s no doubt every single person from Jackalyptic would be an incredible asset to any studio lucky enough to hire them.
Art director Nick Barone, who previously worked on Amazon’s New World before it was confirmed to be ending support last month, called Jackalyptic easily the most talented group he ever worked with for such a small team. Engine and systems engineer Jonathan Rucker echoed that sentiment, describing it as a great team working on a great game, one of the best he’d worked with.
The NDA Problem Makes Everything Worse
Here’s what makes this situation particularly frustrating. Lead UI artist Will Austin confirmed that despite NetEase canceling the project, everything is still under strict NDA. That means these developers spent years pouring their hearts into a Warhammer MMO, and they can’t show anyone what they accomplished. No portfolio pieces. No screenshots. No proof that their hard work even existed.
For game developers, your portfolio is everything. It’s how you get your next job. Being unable to showcase years of work because of legal restrictions tied to a canceled project creates an impossible situation. These talented people are now job hunting without being able to demonstrate what they’ve been doing for the past three years beyond vague descriptions and references.
With Warhammer games bigger than ever, thanks to the success of titles like Space Marine 2 and Games Workshop actively seeking more video game partnerships, it’s a crying shame that this team’s work will never see daylight. The Warhammer fanbase has been hungry for a proper MMO for years, and one was being built by seasoned MMO veterans, and now it’s just gone.
Who Is Jack Emmert and Why Does This Matter
If you’re not familiar with MMO history, Jack Emmert is kind of a big deal. He designed City of Heroes and City of Villains, two of the most beloved superhero MMOs ever made. He also worked on Star Trek Online, Champions Online, and DC Universe Online. The man knows how to build massive online worlds that keep players engaged for years.
Emmert is also a self-professed longtime Warhammer fan, which made this project particularly personal for him. Getting to work on an IP you genuinely love with the resources of a major publisher like NetEase backing you should have been a dream scenario. Instead, it became another cautionary tale about the dangers of working with corporate publishers who can pull funding at any moment.
The studio was working on the project since May 2022, giving the team roughly three and a half years of development time before the axe fell. In that timeframe, they would have completed pre-production, built core systems, created substantial content, and possibly even conducted internal playtests. This wasn’t some pie-in-the-sky concept. This was a real game that was well into development.
NetEase’s Western Studio Bloodbath
Jackalyptic Games isn’t an isolated case. NetEase has now closed six Western studios in 2025 alone, creating a pattern that’s impossible to ignore. The closures include Fantastic Pixel Castle led by former World of Warcraft designer Greg Street, Bad Brain Game Studios founded by former Ubisoft Toronto talent, Jar of Sparks headed by former Halo director Jerry Hook, and Worlds Untold started by ex-BioWare veteran Mark Walters.
Greg Street’s Fantastic Pixel Castle was working on an MMO codenamed Ghost that also got the axe. The studio officially closed on November 17, 2025, just weeks before Jackalyptic’s announcement. Street’s team tried desperately to find alternative funding after NetEase pulled out, but securing investment for a large-scale MMO proved impossible on such short notice.
Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad from Niko Partners explained that this reflects a broader trend where North America-based studios are no longer seen as a safe bet by Chinese publishers. NetEase’s strategy has shifted dramatically, especially after the massive success of Black Myth Wukong in 2024 proved that Chinese studios could produce globally competitive AAA games without Western partnerships.
The Larger MMO Crisis
The Warhammer MMO cancellation is part of a disturbing trend affecting the entire genre. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO got canceled. Microsoft shut down Project Blackbird, which was supposed to be Elder Scrolls Online’s successor. NetEase killed both Ghost and the Warhammer MMO. If you’re an MMO fan, these are dark times.
MMOs are expensive to develop and risky to launch. They require massive teams, years of development, and ongoing support infrastructure. Publishers are increasingly hesitant to greenlight these projects when live service games can achieve similar player engagement with lower upfront costs and faster development cycles. Battle royales, extraction shooters, and other competitive multiplayer formats offer better risk-reward ratios from a business perspective.
The irony is that there’s genuine hunger for new MMO experiences. Final Fantasy 14 continues thriving. World of Warcraft remains profitable despite its age. Elder Scrolls Online has a dedicated player base. But convincing publishers to fund new entries in the genre has become nearly impossible unless you’re an established studio with a proven track record, and even that’s no longer enough as these cancellations prove.
What About the Other Warhammer MMO
This isn’t even the first Warhammer MMO to get canceled before launch. There was a planned Warhammer 40K MMO years ago that met a similar fate. We did eventually get Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning, which launched in 2008 and shut down in 2013. That game now lives on through Return of Reckoning, a fan-run private server that keeps the experience alive for dedicated players.
Games Workshop and Nexon also canceled a separate Warhammer 40K RPG project in early January 2025. Between that cancellation and now Jackalyptic’s MMO getting axed, Warhammer fans who want large-scale multiplayer experiences set in the grimdark future or fantasy worlds are running out of options. The single-player and smaller multiplayer Warhammer games continue to thrive, but the MMO dream remains elusive.
The Human Cost of Publisher Decisions
Behind every canceled game are real people whose careers and livelihoods just got upended. The developers at Jackalyptic Games weren’t just creating a product. They were building something they believed in, working alongside talented colleagues, and developing their skills on what they thought would be a career-defining project.
Now they’re all job hunting simultaneously, competing with each other and with the dozens of other developers laid off from NetEase’s other studio closures. The games industry is already experiencing widespread layoffs and studio closures in 2025. Finding new positions quickly is challenging even for talented veterans, and these developers have the added handicap of not being able to show their most recent work due to NDAs.
Emmert’s LinkedIn post focused on helping his team find new opportunities, emphasizing that these are passionate, creative professionals who bring excellence and collaboration to everything they do. That’s commendable leadership in a terrible situation, but it doesn’t change the fundamental problem. These people dedicated years of their lives to a project that will never exist, and now they’re starting over from scratch.
FAQs
What Warhammer MMO got canceled?
Jackalyptic Games was developing an unannounced Warhammer MMO that never received an official reveal. It’s unclear whether it was set in Warhammer 40K or Warhammer Fantasy, as the studio never publicly confirmed details about the game.
Who was developing the canceled Warhammer MMO?
Jackalyptic Games, a NetEase first-party studio founded by legendary MMO designer Jack Emmert, who previously worked on City of Heroes, Star Trek Online, Champions Online, and DC Universe Online.
Why did NetEase cancel the Warhammer MMO?
NetEase pulled funding from Jackalyptic Games after three and a half years of development. The publisher has been closing Western studios as part of a strategic shift following the success of Chinese-developed AAA games like Black Myth Wukong.
How long was the Warhammer MMO in development?
The game was in development since May 2022, giving the team roughly three and a half years of work before NetEase ended the partnership and shut down the studio.
Can the developers show what they worked on?
No, the project remains under strict NDA despite being canceled. Developers cannot share screenshots, videos, or detailed information about the game they spent years building.
How many studios has NetEase closed in 2025?
NetEase has closed six Western studios in 2025, including Jackalyptic Games, Fantastic Pixel Castle, Bad Brain Game Studios, Jar of Sparks, Worlds Untold, and T-Minus Zero.
Will the Warhammer MMO ever be revived?
Extremely unlikely. With the studio shut down, the team scattered to find new jobs, and everything under NDA, there’s no realistic path for the project to continue. The IP rights would remain with Games Workshop and potentially NetEase depending on their contract.
Conclusion
The cancellation of Jackalyptic Games’ Warhammer MMO represents everything frustrating about modern game development. A talented team led by industry veterans spent years building something they believed in, only to have a publisher pull funding without warning. Now those developers are looking for work, unable to even showcase what they created, while fans who would have loved to play a Warhammer MMO will never get the chance.
NetEase’s decision to close six Western studios in a single year signals a fundamental shift in how Chinese publishers view international partnerships. The success of domestically developed games like Black Myth Wukong proved that Western studios aren’t necessary for global success, and the financial risks of funding ambitious projects like MMOs apparently aren’t worth it anymore.
For the developers caught in this mess, it’s a nightmare scenario. Years of work vanished. Colleagues scattered across the industry. NDAs preventing them from sharing their accomplishments. The game industry has always been volatile, but 2025 has been particularly brutal, and the Warhammer MMO cancellation is just the latest casualty in a year filled with studio closures and canceled projects.
If there’s any silver lining, it’s that these developers clearly have the talent and dedication to land on their feet eventually. Multiple team members praised their colleagues as some of the best they’ve ever worked with. Studios looking for experienced MMO developers, audio engineers, artists, and programmers should absolutely be reaching out to these folks. Their dream project may be dead, but their careers don’t have to be.