Charming browser-based MMO Glitch to close in December

After just over a year of operation, quirky browser-based MMO Glitch is to close in December.

"Unfortunately, Glitch has not attracted an audience large enough to sustain itself," its dev team wrote in a farewell message. "Based on a long period of experimentation and our best estimates it seems unlikely that it ever would."

The game will go offline on December 9th.

Glitch was a creative and imaginative little game, which encouraged kind-hearted co-operation between players. It was also filled to bursting with charming ideas and content.

The game came from Tiny Speck - a studio founded by Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield.

The studio attracted top talent like Keita Takahashi (the Japanese mastermind behind Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy), and Journey producer Robin Hunicke.

Any Glitch users who recently bought the freemium game's premium currency will be able to get their money back.

"Automatic refunds for recent purchases will begin immediately," the Tiny Speck team states. "Refunds for older transactions will need to be done manually and will be processed as quickly as possible, from most recent to oldest."

The shutting down of Glitch will not mean the end for Tiny Speck, but it will result in about 30 staffers being laid off.

This follows news that Ubisoft is canning Facebook game Ghost Recon: Commander, and that Zynga is to close 13 older social games.