THE CUBE, SAVE US Sets Service Termination for May 8

PC Gamer highlighted an official Steam notice from XLGames saying THE CUBE, SAVE US will end service on May 8, 2026. The extraction shooter only launched on Steam on March 18, so the shutdown window is unusually short for a free-to-play live service title.

According to the Steam notice, the game will go offline at 03:00 CEST on May 8, which is 18:00 PDT on May 7. The Discord server is scheduled to close at the same time. The studio said the game started with a lot of support and affection, but is now reaching the end of the story.

The compensation plan is relatively direct. The developer said all items legitimately purchased via Steam will be fully refunded automatically, with refunds scheduled by April 9, 2026 in Korea Standard Time. Players are not supposed to file separate requests for eligible purchases.

PC Gamer added context that helps explain why the announcement landed so quickly. The outlet said THE CUBE, SAVE US hit a peak of 5,177 concurrent players on Steam on March 18, then fell into the hundreds within days. The game also sits at a Mostly Negative review rating on Steam, which suggests the launch failed to turn curiosity into a stable audience.

For live service games, that combination is hard to recover from. A fast population drop hurts matchmaking, community activity, and word of mouth all at once. This shutdown does not settle the broader extraction-shooter market on its own, but it is another reminder that getting attention at launch is very different from building a sustainable service game.