Developer Cold Iron Studios shuts down cloud version of $60 game with no refunds

Following its announcement in March, game developer Cold Iron Studios has shut down the servers for the cloud version of Aliens: Fireteam Elite on the Nintendo Switch. The game originally cost $30 (or $60 for an “Ultimate” version with additional content).

Cold Iron Studios hasn’t offered customers refunds.

TheGamer reported that affected players are entitled to a discount for the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game, which is a 2021 co-op, third-person shooter based on the Alien film franchise. However, that would mean paying money for a game that you have already paid money for once.

Cold Iron Studios told customers in March that the game would shut down on August 5, Delisted Games reported at the time. In a pop-up message in the game, the publisher reportedly told players:

Thank you for playing our game. We sincerely appreciate your support. The game will be accessible until August 5, 2026, 23:59 JST. After that, you will no longer be able to access the game. We apologize to our loyal customers for any inconvenience this may cause, and we appreciate your understanding. We hope you will continue to enjoy our other game titles.

With the game delisted, people who paid for the game cannot play at all, including online with other players or alone offline.

Perhaps by no coincidence, the game’s shutdown comes weeks ahead of the release of the game’s sequel, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, on August 25. Killing the Switch version of the original could push some people to buy the sequel.