Cold Iron Studios shuts down Switch cloud version of Aliens: Fireteam Elite, no refunds

Cold Iron Studios shut down the cloud version of Aliens: Fireteam Elite on the Nintendo Switch on August 5, following an announcement it made in March. Players who paid $30 for the base game, or $60 for an Ultimate edition, can no longer play it at all, online or offline, and the studio has not offered refunds.

The Switch version was available only through the cloud, unlike the PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S versions, which can be bought as physical copies or downloads. TheGamer reported that affected players are entitled to a discount on the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the 2021 co-op shooter, though that still requires paying again for a game they already bought.

The shutdown lands weeks before the sequel, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, arrives on August 25. Cold Iron Studios has not disclosed Switch sales figures, and it may have judged the cloud audience too small to justify server costs. The delisting is the latest example of a paid digital game becoming unplayable when its servers close, a risk that also applies to downloaded titles, since buyers hold only a revocable license.