M2 MMO Dies Due To Server Data Deletion During Maintenance

Boy oh boy, I’m betting there are a few big dog publishers looking at the headlines over this fiasco involving Sankando and HanGame’s free-to-play Japanese MMO, M2, and probably rushing to buy extra storage space to make backups right now. Basically, Sankando’s M2 was taken down for maintenance but during the process critical server data was deleted and the game was left amputated of core data, and in result, it’s dead…for good.

According to IGxPro [via GI.biz] HanGame, the publisher of M2, had to issue a statement about the MMO no longer being in service due to critical data being deleted during server maintenance.

The exact citing is that there was already a “fatal” defect on the server that required emergency maintenance, when Sankando went in to fix the issue they somehow “broke” the “adjustments”, resulting in a difficult situation where data recovery wasn’t feasible. The servers for M2 were officially shutdown on November 10th.

Could you imagine if this was a game that was actually popular? Man, that would have been devastating. I’m thinking about stuff like APB: Reloaded, Champions, DC Unvierse, Silkroad or World of Warcraft…that would be straight-up insane. That’s not to mention all the QQ’ing that would happen in result of such a scenario. Forum boards would implode from the whining, even more-so than Star Wars fans bombarding the official Star Wars website over George Lucas tampering with the original trilogy for the Blu-Ray release.

Hopefully the big dogs have all their stuff backed up nice and neat someplace safe…or at least I’d like to think they do. No word yet on whether Hangame will seek to revive the game or to simply let it stay dead. Word is across the industry is that Hangame used these means as a way to kill off the MMO because it wasn't turning a profit. But for now that's just speculation. We'll keep you posted on any further developments regarding the events.