About Shelf-Life

What it is

When a publisher switches off a game's servers, a game people paid for can stop working, sometimes overnight. Shelf-Life keeps the dates in one place: a ledger of games that have been switched off and ones that are about to be, a page for each game, and a free weekly email, Shutdown Watch.

You can check any game before you buy it, see whether it came out on disc or cartridge as well as by download, and keep a shelf of the games you own to see which are switching off.

It's for players, collectors and anyone who'd rather know before a game they paid for stops working.

How entries are checked

• Every shutdown in the ledger links to its source: the publisher's own announcement where there is one.
• If there's no announcement we can link to, we need two reputable news outlets reporting it before it goes in.
• Dates that haven't happened yet are re-checked every week, because publishers sometimes postpone or cancel them.
• Rumours are never added to the ledger. In the News feed they're labelled "Unconfirmed".
• The weekly email is written in our own words, with a source link for every item.

We're a secondary source. If a date matters to you, check the original announcement we link to.

The "Will this copy last?" estimate on game pages is an estimate, not a promise.

Spotted a mistake, or a shutdown we're missing?

Tell us. A source link is the most useful thing you can send, and we'll fix or add it once we've checked.

Or email shelflifelogs@gmail.com.

Where the information comes from

• Shutdown dates: publishers' announcements and news reports, linked on every entry.
• Game details, covers and screenshots: IGDB.com. Art belongs to its publishers and is shown to identify the game.
• Formats (disc, cartridge, download): Wikidata.
• PC prices: Steam's own UK price, live.
• News: headlines, links and sources from gaming news sites' public feeds. Each headline links to the original story.

Shelf-Life isn't affiliated with any game publisher, platform or store. Game names and images belong to their owners.

How it's funded

Shelf-Life doesn't currently earn money from any link. Some price links from IsThereAnyDeal may earn IsThereAnyDeal a commission. If we ever start earning from links ourselves, we'll say so clearly next to them. You can choose to support Shelf-Life with a voluntary payment through the support link. It doesn't buy a service, perks or influence over what we publish.

Where support goes: hosting, the game-data access Shelf-Life depends on, and the time spent checking every shutdown date against its source. Support is voluntary and never changes what we publish.

Shelf-Life doesn't run advertising, and it doesn't use cookies or analytics of its own. See the privacy notice for the detail.

Games shouldn't just disappear

Shelf-Life isn't part of it, but if you care about this, Stop Killing Games is a campaign that argues players shouldn't lose games they've paid for when a publisher walks away.