Rocket League news outlet and statistics hub Shift announced it will have to close its website “in its current form” at the end of April.
In a Twitter post, the company said it could no longer cover the site’s operational cost. The company said its future was ‘uncertain’, but it would maintain the site in its current form until at least April 30th.
In June 2022, esports holding company X1 Esports purchased Shift. X1 then merged Shift with Rocket League statistics platform Octane.GG, which it purchased in October 2022, in an effort to create a ‘super destination’ for the Rocket League community.
However, in March, Shift divested itself from X1 and the holding company parted ways with the site. At the time, Shift said it would continue to operate independently going forward as it looked for investors and advertisers.
“Without funding, we no longer have the resources necessary to cover the maintenance costs,” Shift’s statement reads. “The Octane database and API, which are included in the current website, will continue until the end of the month, after which they will shut down.”
An admin of Shift’s stats database Octane said on Twitter they would “miss maintaining the database,” but said the company didn’t have a choice. They added that another Shift staffer had allegedly been paying out of pocket to keep the site operational.
The future of Shift and its database remains uncertain as the company looks for methods to keep the database online and available. The CEO of esports organisation RuleOne appeared to indicate interest in a potential deal via a Tweet asking who the owner of Shift is.
As recently as two days ago, the editorial team at the site continued to write articles, and the match database appears to be continuing to update, featuring games for Nitro League Season 13 due to be played up to next week.
The news comes as a raft of other esports companies have seen financial hardship during a shaky financial year and a downturn in investor interest in esports. Several esports organisations have recently ceased operations and closed up shop, and many more have laid off waves of employees.
The esports media landscape has had a particularly tough time. News sites such as Jaxon, Juked and Inven Global have all recently shuttered, and the Washington Post closed its esports and gaming division in January.
