Viral Graphic Suggests 'Team Fortress 2' Is Shutting Down In October Of This Year, But No Official Sources Confirm It
Yesterday, social media users and fans of the beloved team-based first-person-shooter Team Fortress 2 were given a mild jumpscare when a graphic announcing that the game's servers would shut down on October 10th, 2023, began going viral on Twitter.
The post was shared by Twitter user @EverythingOOC, a gimmick account mostly devoted to sharing memes, not misinformation. However, as their tweet spread, multiple users pointed out that the tweet was factually inaccurate, as Valve had not made such an announcement. In fact, the latest update on the Team Fortress website is a news post hyping up an Australian tournament.
Team Fortress 2 did shut down its PlayStation 3 servers in March this year after being live for 15 years, but it seems that event is unrelated to the current rumor.
For some reason, the web browser Opera GX joined in spreading the false rumor, tweeting a doctored screenshot making it look like Valve itself was shutting down Team Fortress 2.
It's unclear why some have begun spreading a hoax claiming TF2 will imminently shut down. The game is still very popular both as a game and as a meme, which is impressive considering how long it's been out.
Ironically, the day after EverythingOOC posted the false graphic, the account quote-tweeted a person, claiming they got "clapped by the community notes." Currently, a Community Notes fact-check is under their viral Team Fortress 2 shutdown post, noting that it is misinformation.
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pinkiespy - goat spy
Engineer: "It turns out all the toxicity only happens when you believe social media"
pointing out pustules on a twitter bird what's that?
Medic: "Tumors!"
Engineers: "We're going to be fine as long as we stop making tweets"
Elon Musk in a Soldier helmet: "Question."
Thedemonsboi
WE ARE NOT GOING TO DIE! WE ARE GOING TO LIVE FOREVER!!!
mandrac
It's fake.
Source engine games can't realy die i mean people still play hl2 deathmatch or css. Valve don't realy need to do anything for those game to still work so i doubt they would somehow pull the plug on tf2 assuming there's even a plug that can be pulled…
Quiet_boi
Bitch, if they kill TF2, they also will kill the TF2 economy.
And if the TF2 economy goes down, the whole Steam Market goes down as well.
Helipilot47
I mean, CS:GO is the biggest driver of the Steam Market at this point, but losing TF2 would be a colossal loss of revenue for Steam, so there's no way it happens (at least at this point)
powerhcm8
Yes, but killing tf2 would introduce uncertainty, people would be skeptical to use the market if suddenly your items lose all value.
That's why CS2 will keep the same items CSGO has, to prevent that.
Uboa
Yeah indeed an update is coming this summer and even after that there is a halloween update. Anyone playing TF2 hardly believes this to be true.
PhasmaFelis
That's a pic from the comic, isn't it? Heavy's sister is in there (second from right). Engineer is not.
Helipilot47
Yeah, it's from the most recent (read: 2017) comic, here
Phhase
There's supposed to be an update sometime this summer, so I doubt it.
Cold Hard Crash
With the amount of people of Twitter I’ve seen who seem to actually want TF2 to stop being relevant, I wouldn’t be surprised if they believed this hoax.
Steve
The OP posted the " when I purposely spread misinformation" meme right after sooooo…
Lord DIO
This is some of the fakest shit I have ever seen.