Shadow of Mordor is Losing its Online Features

After six years, WB Interactive has decided that they're no longer interested in paying the server costs for their 2014 hit game The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of Mordor. Which is why they just announced via Steam that by the end of the year, all the multiplayer and online components of the game would be disabled.

Note: certain features for the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor videogame will no longer be available beginning Dec. 31, 2020.

Affected Features:
• The Nemesis Forge feature will no longer be available. Therefore, players will no longer be able to transfer their in-game Nemeses from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor to Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
• Vendetta missions and Leaderboards will no longer be available.
• WBPlay will no longer be available, but the epic runes "Orc Hunter" and "Gravewalker" will automatically be awarded to all players.

As you can see, it's not exactly the end of the world. While the online modes certainly added a bit of variety to the game, specifically the ability to hunt the orcs that killed other players online, it's not like there was a co-op or competitive mode that was intrinsic to the gameplay experience. You can still hunt orcs and make enemies and enjoy that dope AI... it'll just be a slightly lonelier experience.

Shadow of War, which had a much more active multiplayer component, is still going strong, as near as I can tell.