Well, the other shoe has dropped after the liquidation announcement earlier (which I regret I never had an opportunity to follow up on). The official announcement went up on their website, wiping out all their previous content:

An Important Update from ENGAGE

Unfortunately, ENGAGE platform services will be shutting down on 31st October 2026, and the platform will go offline from that date.

It’s been an amazing 10 years providing immersive events, education and enterprise services to hundreds of incredible clients around the world. However, current market conditions have made it increasingly difficult to continue operating a platform of this size, particularly with the significant rise in running costs over the past few years.

Over the years, we’ve done some amazing things together. From hosting some of the largest virtual corporate events during the COVID lockdowns to helping thousands of students continue their education remotely, and giving creators the tools and freedom to build and run their own immersive experiences.

We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved and grateful to everyone who has been part of the journey. To our clients, partners, creators and the amazing team who helped build ENGAGE over the past decade, thank you for your support, creativity and belief in what we were trying to achieve.

All good things must eventually come to an end, and sadly, that time has come for ENGAGE.

Thank you for an incredible 10 years.

The ENGAGE Team

Rather than write something up myself, instead I am going to refer you to an article written by Julian Reyes a.k.a Keyframe, posted to his own blog. He goes into great detail on what a loss this is, and he includes quotes from many of the people impacted by this decision. Julian wrote:

The announcements came in two parts. In September, the company announced it would proceed with a court-approved liquidation after its largest customer said it would take no further licences. Weeks later, a notice on the ENGAGE site announced that platform services would end on October 31. No export, content retrieval, refund, or migration guidance was announced with it, and that silence is the part builders are still living with.

Carlos Austin did share with me one image of the final gathering of ENAGE builders and users, before they shut the platform down:

I don’t really have very much to add. I feel heartbroken. One of features that made ENGAGE so special was its ability to do a three-dimensional recording of an event, which you could play back. It was a unique feature of the platform, one which never ceased to amaze me. And now it, along with the whole platform, are just gone.

The metaverse winter continues; 2026 has just been an absolutely brutal year with the announcements of multiple metaverse platform shutdowns and rollbacks. Let’s hope there are no more such announcements during the remainder of this year!