nintendo

Aliens: Fireteam Elite Switch cloud version shut down and now unplayable

Cold Iron Studios turned off the cloud servers for Aliens: Fireteam Elite on August 5, making the Nintendo Switch cloud-streamed edition impossible to play for owners. The Switch edition had been removed from the Nintendo eShop earlier this year, while the game remains playable in an offline state on non-cloud versions for other platforms. A sequel, Fireteam Elite 2, is scheduled for August on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, with a Switch 2 edition arriving later in the year. The shutdown underscores consumer and preservation concerns around cloud-only game releases.

• Cold Iron Studios shut down the game’s cloud servers on August 5, rendering the Switch cloud-streamed edition unplayable for anyone who bought it.
• The Switch version was delisted from the Nintendo eShop earlier this year; non-cloud releases on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC remain playable offline.
• Fireteam Elite originally launched in August 2021 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC; a cloud-streamed Switch edition arrived later and a sequel, Fireteam Elite 2, is due in August for PS/Xbox/PC with a Switch 2 edition planned for later this year.
• Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick expects the industry to reach “commercial streaming mode” within three years and says cloud adoption requires low latency, reliable connections, and generous or no data caps.