The Witcher: Monster Slayer will no longer be playable from June 2023

Developer Spoko stops end of January 2023 with support for the AR smartphone game The Witcher: Monster Slayer. Support for the game is being gradually phased out and the game will no longer be playable from June 30, 2023.

From January 31, The Witcher: Monster Slayer will no longer be available for download via the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, it appears from a FAQ. From that moment on, in-game purchases will no longer be possible and the addition of new content, including new monsters, quests and events, will stop. The developer also emphasizes that from the current month no “new functions and technical improvements” will be implemented.

Subsequently, players still have a few months to use up their in-game currency, if any. Through June 30, the game is basically playable as normal for anyone who installed the app before January 31, except for the ability to pay for in-game items and currency with real money. After that, the game’s servers are taken offline and the app can no longer be used.

The Witcher: Monster Slayer was released in July of 2021, so it hasn’t been live for even two years. In the same faq, the Polish company says that the game ‘could not live up to business expectations’. That is why Spokko, which is already a subsidiary of CD Projekt Red, is included by the also Polish publisher. In this process, an unknown number of Spokko employees are laid off.

The augmented reality game The Witcher: Monster Slayer uses a formula similar to Pokémon GO; players control their ingame Witcher by moving around in the real world. Through augmented reality, monsters inspired by The Witcher books appear and the player must defeat. There are various weapons, armor and potions available in the game. The game is free-to-play and includes in-game purchases. Especially after a recent update, the game received a lot of criticism; there would be too many pay-to-win elements in the smartphone game.