Nintendo Switch Users Can No Longer Play Popular Multiplayer Game

Gamers on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, and Nintendo Switch OLED have lost access to a popular Nintendo Switch multiplayer game, which is no longer playable on Switch consoles, and thus, consequently, has been pulled from the Nintendo eShop, the digital storefront for Switch devices. More specifically, if you’ve been making use of your Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play Paladins, well you won’t be doing this anymore.

As you may know, back in April developer Evil Mojo Games and publisher Hi-Rez Studios relayed word that the Nintendo Switch game was shutting down, and being removed from the Nintendo eShop as a result, on June 15. If you don’t have your calendar handy, that was yesterday. 

“After lots of discussion and thought across our team, we’ve made the difficult decision to end support for Paladins on Nintendo Switch, with the final update it receives being Midnight Masquerade,” read the statement at the time. “This choice wasn’t made easily or without concern, however we realized that the performance of our Switch port was not up to our or community standards and we were unable to provide support at the level our community deserves. We spent countless hours working on platform-specific problems, and dedicated ourselves to solutions as long as we could, as recently as the work done for Payload; however, this has caused frequent challenges that prevent Paladins from being the best game it could be. This shift allows us to better focus on the other platforms Paladins is on, as well as have more flexibility in how we deliver updates to players.”

The aforementioned duo advise Switch users to migrate to a different platform if they want to continue to play the game. The available platforms to choose from are PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The game is also playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S via backward compatibility. 

“Once again, we appreciate every player of Paladins and understand this is a disappointment to many, however we feel this is the best path forward to ensure Paladins can continue to improve & provide all players a good experience moving forward,” adds the statement. 

It’s unclear how many players were active on Nintendo switch, but as of 2020 — the last time we got player numbers — the game had attracted over 45 million player, a very solid number for a free-to-play game. That said, in a world where there are so many other multiplayer live-service games active — such as Fortnite, Warzone, Overwatch 2, League of Legends, PUBG, Apex Legends, Counter-Strike, and many others — it’s unclear how many have stuck with the 2018 hero shooter.