Not a lot to say, Tim Chappell made the announcement earlier today, that Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes would be closing on March 29, 2013:

On March 29th, 2013 Mythic Entertainment will be shutting down all online services associated with Play 4 Free Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes (WOH).

With follow-up information and thoughts from James Casey, the WOH Producer:

Launched in Beta just over a year ago, the free-to-play battle arena version of Warhammer Online was a grand experiment. We were able to test new server technology, learn more about the free-to-play market, and engage in endless quick, down and dirty, three-way battles any time of day or night. On all of these fronts, we were able to make great inroads and insights and deliver a fast and frenetic game.

As a producer for this game from the start, I am proud of the hard work and effort that made the game possible and I feel sad that it is not able to carry on. I think we created something special and I would not trade the time creating it or playing it (on all those Friday Fight Fests and anonymously almost every day) for anything.

I hope that those who have played it at any time in the past will stick through to the end, enjoy the special pricing so you can try out everything before it goes, and try out a few of the special things that were still in our pipeline.

Final Words

Whether you just tried it out or have played it from the start of Beta, we thank you all for your patronage. I hope you will all join us and celebrate the final moments of WOH. See you online!

I don’t think there will be much of an impact (if any) on the Ultima-related offerings from Mythic – Ultima Online and Ultima Forever.

Update: Apparently, the shutdown has something to do with the studio being unable to meet its financial goals:

Mythic Entertainment will shut down free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes due to its inability to meet financial goals, the studio announced.

Note that this doesn’t mean the studio is losing money, necessarily. It could just mean that they were going to fall short of their profitability targets for the year.