Crayta first launched on Google Stadia back in 2020 as a game creation suite, social space, and gameplay portal along the lines of Roblox or Project Spark. Users could play games created by the community, level up and unlock avatar items, or dive in and make some games themselves. It then launched on the Epic Games Store in March of 2021 and can also be streamed through a browser on Facebook Gaming. Despite the expanded availability, Crayta hasn’t seen the growth that Unit 2 Games hoped for and will be shutting down permanently on March 3rd, 2023 at 4pm GMT (8am PT). The team announced the news yesterday on their blog:
Just over two and a half years ago we launched Crayta, born from our collective passion to empower anyone and everyone to build their very own games and share them with the world. It was an ambitious vision but you, our creators and players, and all of the connections and community that have emerged are what makes Crayta such a special place. We still believe this democratisation of game and virtual world creation is where the industry is headed but it’s with great sadness that we’re today announcing the closure of Crayta on all platforms, effective 4pm GMT (8am PT) on Friday, March 3, 2023.
We originally launched on Google Stadia on July 1, 2020. It was the middle of a pandemic and we were all locked down at home but our amazing team pulled everything together to bring Crayta to life. We were blown away by the instant love, excitement and passion that poured into our community, and we’ve been touched by the number of you who have stayed with us right through to today.
While we’ve expanded Crayta significantly since launch, we’ve unfortunately not seen quite enough growth for us to justify continuing. Google Stadia shut its doors recently, which was the initial launch platform for Crayta, so we’ve decided that now is the right time to bring things to a close, despite the dedicated efforts of our team and our community.
Rest assured, we’re going to make the very most of the remaining time we have together. We’ll post a schedule soon of the activities and events we’re planning — everything from celebratory playalong streams through to help and support to make the most of your hard-earned creation skills in the future.
We’ve assembled an FAQ here so take a look if you have any immediate questions. If there’s anything else you’d like to ask then please head to our Discord and we’ll respond to what we can, or contact us at [email protected].
We’ll be in touch again before we turn off the power button in March, but in the meantime please accept our heartfelt thanks for your loyalty, dedication, passion and commitment to Crayta and our team. Many of the team have been working on Crayta for over five years, and we couldn’t have done any of this without you. We hope you’ll all take fond memories away with you, as well as immense pride for everything you’ve built and contributed to the community.
Thank you, Craytans — we love you. ❤
Crayta Announcement – February 1st, 2023
Any delisting is disheartening but it’s especially sad when game-maker titles like this shut down and take everyone’s creations, inspiration, and hard work with them. Responding to the question “what’s going to happen to my games”, the Crayta FAQ suggests taking screenshots or capturing video of your content before March 3rd. It appears their social accounts will be shut down as well taking even their tutorial videos and gameplay showcases off of YouTube and Facebook in the near future. It’s a real shame.
If you’re interested in what Crayta has to offer over its final month you can easily jump into it on its Facebook Gaming page where it streams through a browser. It was a little artifact-y and I felt a little lag with mouse and keyboard controls but it was impressive to see the catalog of creations out there. You can also still download and install Crayta through the Epic Games Store for free.
I’ve added the date to the Watch List calendar and we’ll have a page up on the site later.