Firewall Ultra, which launched on PS5 exclusively for PSVR2 in August 2023, didn't fare well with fans or critics and is now going away forever. Sony announced the shutdown quietly by updating a blog post from August 2023 celebrating the game's release, adding a notice that online features will be terminated and the game will no longer be playable as of September 17, 2026.
The timing and method of announcement raise questions about how major releases are managed at the platform holder. With developer First Contact Entertainment having dissolved in late 2023, the announcement of Firewall Ultra's upcoming shutdown awkwardly fell to the 2023 PlayStation Blog post where the game was originally featured. Rather than a dedicated customer notice or press release, players discovered the news through the updated launch announcement, complete with broken links and removed video embeds.
Firewall Ultra was marred early on, with many critics citing issues with the game's control scheme, amount of gameplay variety, and progression system, garnering it a middling Metacritic score of 61 out of 100. Only four months after release, developer First Contact Entertainment was shuttered, leaving Firewall Ultra essentially abandoned, though in early 2025 Sony dropped a surprise update aimed at getting in new players. Neither effort was enough to turn the game around.
The situation is particularly awkward given the predecessor's legacy. The original Firewall shooter for the OG PSVR proved to be one of the peripheral's biggest hits and remains alive and kicking, whilst Firewall Ultra failed to replicate that success.
Firewall Ultra's fate reflects a broader pattern afflicting Sony's live-service strategy. The company was planning to release at least 10 live-service PlayStation games by 2026, but this target began shrinking as the years went by, with several delays and cancellations hitting PlayStation's first-party studios. Sony's multiplayer game Concord, for instance, failed to find an audience and was quickly taken offline, with its studio shuttered.
The challenges extend well beyond a single title. First Contact Entertainment cited the industry's overall lack of virtual reality support as a reason for closure, noting as a AAA VR game developer it was "just not able to justify the expense needed going forward." That broader problem—the difficulty of sustaining live-service games dependent on continuous player engagement and server costs—has claimed numerous titles and studios in recent years.
What sets Firewall Ultra apart is how it ends. Most game closures are announced through official notices or support pages. Few games have their deaths announced through an awkward retrofit of a celebratory launch post, effectively turning a moment of hope into a tombstone. For players who invested time or money in the PSVR2 exclusive, the communication itself may frustrate as much as the shutdown itself.
Players have until September 17, 2026 at 10:00am PDT to experience any final moments in the game before it becomes completely unplayable.