Zynga Defends Star Wars: Hunters After Closure Announcement

Despite the imminent closure of Star Wars: Hunters on October 1st, Zynga's CEO, Frank Gibeau, stated that the multiplayer shooter game "was not a failure." Launched in June 2024 after being announced in February 2021, the title did not meet the company's financial performance expectations, but Gibeau highlights the technological foundation and lessons learned as an "asset" for future projects.

The Zynga CEO insists that Star Wars: Hunters was not a failure, despite its closure in October, citing learnings and a strong technological foundation for future games.

The Reasons Behind the Shutdown and Zynga's Vision

Star Wars: Hunters, a multiplayer shooter set in the Star Wars universe, is on its last days. On October 1st, 2025, its servers will be deactivated, marking the end of a journey that began with high expectations. Traditionally, the closure of a live-service game suggests underperformance, usually financial, leading to its discontinuation. However, Frank Gibeau from Zynga disagrees, labeling the project as "no failure."

In an interview with The Game Business, Gibeau explained that the Zynga team built a "great technological foundation" and a "fun game" with Hunters. The main issue, according to him, was that the game "did not become a viable business." Gibeau specifically cited the lack of "organic license facilities" as a contributing factor to its discontinuation.

He also mentioned challenges in exploring the intellectual property, such as the ability to play with iconic characters like Darth Vader. "We ended up with a cross-platform game on the Switch and on mobile that worked perfectly. It was fun. But it didn't engage long-term. And it wasn't a viable business," said Gibeau. Mobile gaming market data indicates that, one month after the global launch, Star Wars: Hunters generated approximately $1 million in revenue (excluding the Switch version), a value considered low compared to other industry releases.

Despite the shutdown, Gibeau sees the end of Hunters as an opportunity for Zynga to have "another chance" with a new IP, but now with the knowledge and technical foundation acquired. "The action shooter category in mobile is very large and growing, and we would like to be there," stated Gibeau. "Now we have an Unreal technological foundation, with some great leadership in terms of engineering, developers, and designers... Now it's about taking the learnings from Star Wars: Hunters and applying them to a new attempt with another intellectual property."

Although the game was praised for some aspects, it had a turbulent launch, including a long development period and significant delays. Zynga pushed out one final update to all users on April 15, 2025, and the PC version of the game was officially canceled.

The case of Star Wars: Hunters highlights the challenges in making financially sustainable live-service games, even with a strong IP like Star Wars, and the importance of effective monetization and long-term engagement in the competitive mobile gaming market.