It’s never easy to say goodbye to an MMO, especially one that you’ve personally played every day since launch. Of course we knew about and were prepared for the Harry Potter magic awakens sunset since August, but that doesn’t make it much easier. That includes the fact that the game only launched a little over a year ago, or the fact that the game has always been part of an extremely controversial brand that made it difficult to get the word out.

But yes, Harry Potter: Magic Awakens officially shut down its US, European and Oceania servers last night at 6pm EDT. The game’s original Asian servers – namely those in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan – remain online. Warner Bros and NetEase never stated a specific reason for the closure; the game reportedly generated good profits for the companies.

There Are There are several guides floating around online that claim to explain how to transfer accounts to the Asian servers, but I’ve never intended to do such things, so I can’t say if they’re legit. In my opinion, sometimes we just have to let our games go. And despite it being so close to Halloween, the shutdown didn’t adhere to the vampire rules; the day has come and gone whether I invited it or not.

MOP readers will know that we’ve been covering the game since launch, detailing the many aspects that caught our – okay, mostly my – attention and haven’t let go. I even wrote a summary of all the ways HPMA should and could have clicked with MMO gamers of all stripes, from the extremely well-crafted PvP combat to all the features like housing tailor-made for roleplayers. Whether it was due to its mobile nature, the studio behind it, or the Harry Potter IP itself, the game was truly overlooked and deserved so much better than NetEase gave it.

TEAR, Harry Potter magic awakens.