'SoulCalibur: Lost Swords' to shut down later this year - what to expect

There's some sad news for fans of the "SoulCalibur" franchise, as "SoulCalibur: Lost Swords" will shut down later this year.

 "SoulCalibur: Lost Swords" official website

News of the game shutting down came from its very own publisher.

"SoulCalibur: Lost Swords" is best known for being the free-to-play game in the popular fighting game franchise.

The game was initially released for PlayStation 3 (PS3) back in 2014. One of the things that make this particular entry from the franchise unique is the fact that it is an exclusively single player game, according to Polygon. Fighting games typically allow players to go head to head with their friends; in this game, however, players can only combat computer-controlled fighters.

In an interview with Siliconera, the game's producer, Masaaki Hoshino, explained why the team behind "SoulCalibur: Lost Swords" ultimately went with their single player only model. According to Hoshino, they ultimately decided to go with the single player exclusive model because of the "pay-to-win" model native to the game. He said that they wanted to avoid pairing newbie players up with ones who may have been playing the game for a while and then just have the veteran beat the neophyte so badly that the latter may not come back.

"SoulCalibur: Lost Swords" has amassed two million downloads since initial launch.

The game will officially be shut down by Nov. 30, according to Gamespot, with some of the services already expected to be cut off even before then.

According to the game's publisher, some of the items that are currently available for the game will no longer be sold by Sept. 30. On Oct. 27, all sales for items used in the game will be halted.

Despite "SoulCalibur: Lost Swords" being shut down, fans can still reportedly look forward to more games coming from the franchise. The game's developer cryptically said in a farewell video created for the game, "Long live SoulCalibur."

Fans will just have to wait for those new games to come out.