In a rather sudden announcement, developer Bitbox has stated that their survival-focused Life is Feudal: MMO will be closing down its doors on January 18, 2021. Where things get really strange is that instead of Life is Feudal being shut down due to a lack of funding or even a massive exodus of players, Bitbox are essentially being forced to stop operating its servers due to legal pressure.

"A couple of days ago we received an official letter from a certain company that basically says that they will stop paying us our share from LiF: MMO," reads the developer update. "There is nothing much we can do in a legal way since we do not have the required funds to pay for the costly legislation in the US. Especially in a situation where our own hard-earned money will be most probably used against us."

"We’ve felt ourselves under great business, legal, and financial pressure. This pressure didn't work. But it also means that, unfortunately, we can no longer pay for the servers, GM, and online support and, effectively, we cannot continue updating the game. There is nothing much we can do in this situation, and we’re simply forced to close the game."

Needless to say, in-game purchases have now been disabled, while those that want one can request a refund for recent purchases. This refund will be available for all subscription and premium currency purchases that were done in the last 45 days, so you should be able to get one without too much trouble.

The final thing worth mentioning is that Life is Feudal will be getting one last patch in the near future. It won't be fully finished or polished, but it'll hopefully give you a few new things to do before it all goes away in January.

You can learn more about this whole process, as well as keep an eye on when the patch will arrive, over at the official website.