Urban Dead closing

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

Urban Dead is an old browser game about surviving the zombie apocalypse. It describes itself as "a free-to-play browser-based multi-player game where you play the survivor or victim of a zombie outbreak in a quarantined city centre, alongside thousands of others."

Unfortunately, it is now closing on Friday, March 14. From the creator himself:

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.

Not sure if anyone cares since it's such an old game, but I thought I'd mention it here. I had a ton of fun with this game when it first came out and there's a lot of game lore archived on the official wiki.

 

[Glory To Arztotska]

Oh damn, I remember this, one of my favorite MUDs.

F.

 

[Margo Martindale]

due to an upcoming change in UK website legislation.

Bullshit UK legislation kills again...

 

[Dreamland]

Fuuuuck, i remember my wasted hours at hischool again

 

[Private Tag Reporter]

I remember wasting hours in this back in the day. More UK legislation killing small websites, and the small i internet gets a little smaller

 

[Dangerous Dude]

Big government fucking us all in the collective ass as usual.

 

[Flopper]

Damn, this brought to memory some of the browser MMOs I played during my first years on the Internet. Does anyone here remember CritticAge and Hobo Wars? (Apparently, the former has been rebranded.)

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

Damn, this brought to memory some of the browser MMOs I played during my first years on the Internet. Does anyone here remember CritticAge and Hobo Wars? (Apparently, the former has been rebranded.)

I remember Hobo Wars for sure.