Did Firefall just shut down without warning?

It looks like the Firefall imbroglio may be coming to an end, if the recent developments are to be believed. The official website is down for some hours without any previous warning and players are saying that logins for the game have stopped working, a very bad sign indeed. While the Steam page is still up, Firefall could have just shut down entirely today.

Firefall's developer, Red 5 Studios, is owned by Chinese company The9, which expected to reinvigorate the game for the Asian market, along with console and mobile ports. This sounded like an overly ambitious and even surreal plan considering the mixed feelings about the current Firefall version on PC, and it looks like the late salaries in December 2015 and the layoffs in July 2016 sealed the fate of the game.

While an official announcement is usually needed for this kind of situation, it sadly looks like Firefall is no more and Red 5 Studios could be in a dire situation.

Our sympathies to those involved and especially to those who devoted their hearts to this game.