An era is ending. As Adobe will end support for Flash Player on December 31, 2020, that means a wealth of games, videos, and sites could be lost to the ages. With preparation for that day coming, Kongregate announced on its forums that it won’t accept new games or add badges to existing games. It also set a July 22, 2020 deadline to begin ending support for different site functions.
Kongregate has been known for, among many things, games made in Flash. It noted that its 128,000 existing games will remain playable and able to be updated, but the shift to developing games means resources are being moved away from continuing to expand the site’s game library and site.
As for the July 22, 2020 date, that’s when many social elements on the official site will be shut down. In particular, many chat rooms and forums will be closed, removed, or put into a “read-only state.” Here’s the full list of elements that will be shuttered from the company’s announcement.
- Chat rooms not associated with a particular game, including Badge-of-the-day chat rooms, will be closing.
- Many game-specific chat rooms will no longer be available, but some games (roughly 20) will continue to have chat.
- Certain non-gaming forums (Off Topic, Serious Discussion, The Arts, and Forum Games) will be removed from the site.
- Most other forums will be moved to a read-only state in which administrators can make announcements but players will not be able to post. This will not affect the forums for Animation Throwdown, Bit Heroes and other Kongregate-created games.
- Individuals wishing to create a new account will be required to verify their email address.
The company also reached out to Forbes to confirm that layoffs are a part of this shift. In the statement issued, it blamed COVID-19 for also resulting in things proceeding as they are and a downsizing that led to 12 people being fired with no notice.
Kongregate was founded in 2006.
