Tough times are coming for fans of several games with live service, which are titles destined to be permanently updated over a long period of time. Several of them will be shut down in the near future, and CrossfireX and Knockout City are among the latest to join the list.

CrossfireX is the Xbox console version of the massively popular tactical shooter Crossfire. After some delay, it appeared less than a year ago, but was neither a hit with critics nor, more importantly, the public, Engadget wrote on the subject.

Developer Smilegate has stopped selling the game (the multiplayer component is free-to-play, but the single-player campaign, developed by Remedy, is not) and is offering refunds on purchases made in the last two weeks. The company will shut down CrossfireX’s servers on May 18.

Meanwhile, Knockout City is a fun dodgeball game that debuts in 2021. It became free-to-play last year when developer Velan Studios parted ways with EA to release it independently. Alas, Knockout City is also being shut down.

We have an important announcement about the future of Knockout City.

Season 9 will be our final Season. All servers will be shut down on June 6th. We have more in store, so stay tuned!

Learn more about the upcoming sunset in our latest blog: https://t.co/15hTpzmSyq

— Knockout City (@knockoutcity) February 3, 2023

It’s hard to make a successful game, let alone one that requires players to stick with it for a long period of time. Major players like Fortnite, Apex Legends (the console and PC version), Valorant, Overwatch 2, and Genshin Impact won’t be showing up anytime soon. All the developers are competing with each other and anything else that can grab people’s attention. Even though there are more than 3 billion gamers, there are only so many games with live service that the market can support.