Adobe will retire Shockwave on April 9, 2019
Adobe plans to discontinue Adobe Shockwave, a browser-based platform for interactive games and applications, on April 9, 2019.
Adobe will remove downloads for Shockwave Player for Windows on that day from its Internet sites and servers. The company notes that Enterprise customers will continue to receive support for Adobe Shockwave until contracts expire.
Adobe states that the rise of alternative technologies are the main reason for discontinuation of the product.
As technologies evolve and the use of mobile devices has grown, interactive content has moved to platforms such as HTML5 Canvas and Web GL and usage of Shockwave has declined.
Developers used Adobe Director to create Shockwave content. The content could be viewed in any compatible web browser provided that the Adobe Shockwave plugin was installed in the browser.
Shockwave was a common format for CD-ROM based projects and as a format for video games that game creators published on online gaming sites.
The rise of Adobe Flash put Shockwave on the backburner thanks to support for features that Shockwave did not support.
Adobe discontinued Adobe Director and Adobe Shockwave Player for Mac OS in 2017 already. The Windows version of Shockwave Player is the last consumer-version of Shockwave still supported by Adobe. Its retiring in April 2019 ends support for all consumer-versions.
End of support does not mean that Shockwave content won't function anymore after the date. Shockwave won't be offered for download anymore by Adobe, but existing installations can still be used to play Shockwave content.
Third-party download sites may continue to offer Shockwave Player for Windows, and users may install the program on Windows devices.
Adobe won't support Shockwave anymore starting April 9, 2019 with the exception of Enterprise licenses that may still be valid.
Adobe Flash is the next Adobe product that is on the chopping block. Adobe plans to retire Flash in December 2020. All major browser makers announced that they will discontinue support for Adobe Flash in 2020 as well.
Now You: Are you affected by the end of Shockwave or Flash?
The long-time drawing program, iSketch.net, uses Shockwave. iSketch players (some have played for 20+ years). Players hope Shockwave’s owners are keeping their promise that they’re re-vamping iSketch (using VOLUNTEERS) so it can be played on various platforms for the future. NO other drawing game comes close to iSketch’s style and capacities. iSketch players hope the iSketch/Shockwave “contract†does not run out soon, as many players (especially the older ones) use iSketch for psychological therapy, socializing and friendships. Old, full versions of Shockwave are the only ones that work with iSketch anymore. iSketch is like Pictionary with interactive player actions, and has many themed rooms (eg 80’s; rhymes; animals, holidays, movies etc etc etc) with options to create a custom room or use several Languages rooms. iSketch is overseen by “invisible†Admins who make sure players are not abusing iSketch rules or bullying others.
The drawing program,iSketch, uses Shockwave. iSketch players (some have played for 20+ years) hope Shockwave’s owners are keeping their promise that they’re re-vamping iSketch (using Volunteers) so it can be played n various platforms for the future. iSketch players hope the iSketch/Shockwave “contract” does not run out soon, as many players use iSketch for therapy and friendships. Old, full versions of Shockwave are the only ones that work with iSketch anymore. iSketch is like Pictionary with interactive player actions, and has many themed rooms (eg 80’s; rhymes; animals, holidays, movies etc etc etc) with options to create a custom room or use several Languages rooms. iSketch is overseen by “invisible” Admins who make sure players are not abusing iSketch rules or bullying others.
I have developed an application using the Flash Builder (ActionScript and mxml etc.) that
runs in the Flash Player.
Since the Flash player is being phased out, what would be the best alternative run time
platform?
I still use it for flash games and from i can see HTML5 is not up to scratch yet.I simply will not update the flash player and use it for as long as i can in palemoon browser.
I sincerely hope the choice to use it will still be there and there are hundreds of flash game sites out there that hopefully will still function when the purge of flash begins.
It’s time to tell your friends to uninstall this unwanted software.
Unless they want it, of course.
now flash player will ax off the internet for eating resource finally.
What , which software , is going to replace our “good old ” Shockwave Player ??
You kidding right? Flash pretty much replaced Shockwave years now.
I would rather see Flash getting killed asap, to get everyone to move to HTML5, there’s lots of content still relying on Flash today which is annoying (we need to force their hand).
I think we should still have legacy support for old “historical” online games that set online interactive content in motion. I’m not saying Flash should still be seen as a major program for Adobe, but that it should still at least work on browsers.
I disagree. HTML 5 is still not capable to create games on the same level at Flash. Unity plugin was great replacement for Flash but that got killed off too. The result is we only have garbage games on browser now. Browser gaming is dead.
The only usage HTML 5 completely replaced Flash is for ads. Now they’re much harder to block than Flash
My thoughts, exactly.
I haven’t used flash since feb 2014. Occasionally I stumble upon a site that insists I download and install flash player. I sometimes take a screenshot and post it to twitter, then tell people “if you see anything like this, find a website that doesn’t suck.”
After all, today, everything plays nearly everywhere save for those few sites. That is on Win, linux, or android – older and newer hardware.
Chaturbate is flash only. Other than that, I think everything else I use it html5.
they offer html5 too, and it works fine :)
“declined” is an understatement — I haven’t seen any new Shockwave content in years! Flash is a whole different story: there’s a trend of Flash game development shrinking in complexity as larger projects migrate away, but existing games still have momentum from their player base.
Hah, who knew Shockwave still existed?
@Linday:
Not only that, but until I read this article I genuinely had no idea what Shockwave was actually for.
My sister plays dozens of shockwave games every day. So I do sometimes. 😃