https://urbandead.com/shutdown.html

Urban Dead is shutting down

Sad to have to announce that Urban Dead will be closing down on
Friday 14 March 2025, due to an upcoming change in UK website
legislation.

The Online Safety Act comes into force later this month, applying to
all social and gaming websites where users interact, and especially
those without strong age restrictions. With the possibility of heavy
corporate-sized fines even for solo web projects like this one, I've
reluctantly concluded that it doesn't look feasible for Urban Dead to
be able to continue operating.

So a full 19 years, 8 months and 11 days after its quarantine began,
Urban Dead will be shut down. No grand finale. No final catastrophe.
No helicopter evac. Make your peace or your final stand in whichever
part of Malton you called home, and the game will be switched off at
noon UTC on 14 March.

The game's wiki will be set to read-only the same day. If Urban Dead
is ever revivified or spun off in any way in the future, it'll be
announced on this website. I'll be happy to refund any IP unlock
donations made in the past six months, on request, since this
shutdown was an unexpected one. If you're glad that the game stayed
up as long as it did, you can scavenge me a freeze-dried coffee.

-- Kevan, 2025

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