Celestials — (Image credit: Frost Giant Studios)

Stormgate, the StarCraft-like RTS that launched into early access in 2024 and hit 1.0 a year later, is ending support for online play at the end of April because Hathora, which provides server functionality for the game, has been purchased by an AI company. There's a chance that online play could be restored at some point in the future, but for now developer Frost Giant Studios says it will patch Stormgate so it can be played offline.

Hathora announced in March that it had been acquired by Fireworks AI, and that its support for games like Stormgate would end on May 5. A partnership with GameFabric "to provide a clear migration path and hands-on support through the transition" was announced at the same time, but Stormgate apparently isn't going to make that move.

One possible reason is that Stormgate isn't seeing much action these days. We were quite taken by the game in its pre-release days, and there appeared to be a tremendous amount of support among long-suffering RTS fans too. A Kickstarter campaign drew nearly $2.8 million from backers—that's on top of the $35 million in private funding Frost Giant had already secured from investors—and a subsequent investment opportunity raised another $1.2 million.

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But the early access release stumbled, and the 1.0 release in 2025 didn't turn things around, probably at least in part because some of the game's core features, including the terrain editor and co-op mode, were still in development. User reviews on Steam are mixed, with less than 50% of them positive, and concurrent player numbers haven't exceeded double digits since December 2025; the peak concurrent player count for the past 24 hours was just 28. For a free-to-play game, that's not sustainable.

We have some unfortunate news. I'll get straight to it:Our game server orchestration partner, Hathora, has been purchased by an AI company, and they are winding down their service at the end of April. This will create a planned outage for Stormgate's multiplayer modes.Stormgate will be patched so that it can be played offline, but online modes will not be available at that point.We hope to restore online play in a future patch, but this work will be dependent on Frost Giant finding a partner to support ongoing operations.We're very grateful to our community of players, and we will post another update as more information is available, including more info about how offline mode works, and whether we get any patches out before the server wind down.Thank you for your support.The Frost Giant and Community Development team. — (Image credit: Frost Giant Studios)

Frost Giant said it hopes to restore online play at some point in the future, but that will require "finding a partner to support ongoing operations." Given that Stormgate likely isn't making much money these days, I have to imagine its options on that front are pretty limited.

The one bright spot amidst all of this is that promised offline patch: Online modes will no longer be available, which isn't great for a game in which multiplayer figures so prominently, but Stormgate does offer a campaign and other solo modes, and those will remain. These days, that seems to be about the best you can ask for.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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