Any time you mention DCS WWII multiplayer the next words you’re likely to utter are “Storm of War.” This server, run by the No.54th Squadron with PhilStyle being the most public of figures in the group with his YouTube channel, has been at the centre of DCS WWII activities. In announcement today, it was announced that the server would be shutting down.
The statement
Posted this morning to the Storm of War Discord, PhilStyle, well known for his YouTube channel and a person that I did an podcast with last year, made the following announcement:
As of now, Storm of War DCS server is shut down.
For information, just in case people are concerned, there are no health issues or problems within the admin team.
In mid-2021 we set an internal deadline to review DCS WW2 at the end of 2021 to determine whether or not there is enough draw from the core product to keep us hopeful and interested. This deadline has passed.
Despite January 2022 being the busiest month ever for the server, our opinion as a team is that DCS WW2 is not a product that is compelling enough for us to continue and we don’t have enough confidence in its development.
Thanks to everyone who has supported the project. It has been a success.Donations from January 2022 will all be refunded. If you have a regular payment set up, please cancel it.
The admin team will be making themselves largely non-contactable. We would rather not enter into discussions about why we made this decision.
PhilStyle on the Storm of War Discord
Except for the skeleton required to provide a couple of squad channels, the SoW Discord will be effectively shut down also.
The Discord channel linked above has been effectively been shut down minus the announcement and a couple of squadron channels.
What happened?
There will be many different interpretations of the statement as well as comments directed at a variety of parties involved. DCS WWII has been a challenging area for DCS World and while other areas of the sim seem to have been growing well, WWII has been a bit more hit and miss depending on what features and aircraft that you care about.
Indeed, the Storm of War team had posted their list of bugs with the DCS: FW190A-8 that they felt were negatively impacting gameplay. The DCS: Mosquito had not yet been added as there were bugs with the way multicrew interacted with the stats system. The SoW team seemed poised to tackle these issues as recently as just a few days ago but it seems that the issues have boiled over.
Although the statement does indicate that there are no health issues, I still hope that Phil, Dietrich and other members of their team are doing well. The sense of defeat and frustration does seem to come through in the statement. In these difficult times the stress can definitely takes its toll. I wish all of the Storm of War team well.
What comes next?
As the saying goes, when one door closes another will open. That seems true in life and in DCS multiplayer servers. Other DCS WWII servers have been online before and even before the closure notice there was news in the community that the popular 4YA servers were going to experiment with a DCS WWII server. That seems to have taken on renewed interest this morning as PhilStyle has given the ok to transfer some of the Storm of War scenarios over to that server.
Update: A correction to the above line, Phil has stated that he cannot stop anyone from doing this if they wish.
And I do hope too that we’ll see some renewed emphasis and strategic planning for DCS WWII’s future modules and bug fixes both in the European theatre that they have now as well as the likely plan to venture to the Pacific.
Stormbirds 
You are the man with the news.
You should cover the trucker rally. 🙂
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I’m staying far away from that one 🙂
Flight sim news is the focus!
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So, let me get this straight: In order to best serve the interests of a growing user base of what is arguably the most popular WW2 server, the Admin team decides to deny access to that growing user base of what is arguably the most popular WW2 server.
And they’re doing this, if i’m hearing things right, essentially in protest of a few problems with a couple modules and the inherent difficulties with multi-player.
So they decide to help their friends by taking their ball and going home…?
A. If they give up this easily, i’m glad they’re not in charge of actually building airplanes.
B. They seem to have their priorities exactly bass ackwards.
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For the community that has grown around this server and DCS WWII in general it does feel like a frustrating situation. I don’t know much more than what the statement says unfortunately.
I do see a lot of movement towards some other DCS WWII servers so hopefully something good will spring from the ashes.
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I used to frequent Storm of War. It’s super frustrating that the D9 engine bug remains and some of the A8 issues also. How hard can it be to sort these long outstanding issues? Anyway I wish Phil and Deitrich all the best. I’m sure we will learn more about what the real issue is in time.
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These bugs are definitely frustrating and the length that some of them have persisted is likely where that frustration deepens for many. Let’s hope that we do see some momentum on these!
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Yeah, I was sad to hear about this when I woke up, but I am also happy to see so many people rallying to build a new home for disjointed WWII players, there are a couple servers that have been around for a long time, and some new ones on the way.
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Yeah it was a surprise for me this morning – that’s for sure!
Hopefully the new servers spinning up will be able to maintain some of that community spirit. I know many have also hoped that we’ll see some longstanding bugs sorted out. I’ve already seen some positive exchanges just today about delayed action fuses – I know that was a big request.
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Shame considering the depth of simulation DCS offers in its WWII planes.
Shamrock: completely OT but I thought you might be interested in this tank simulation called Gunner Heat PC. There’s a free demo of it on their website and I think it’s really good: check it out if you haven’t already, would love to read your thoughts: gunnerheatpc.com
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Thanks for the tip! I’m overwhelmed with options right now but I will try and find a moment to have a look!
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Phil didn’t just announce it would be shutting down, he shut it down WITH the announcement. Defecating on the community that supported it from a height and stripped away the Discord channel, unceremoniously, without any prior warning.
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It was a shocking shutdown. I’m glad that we have a replacement stepping up.
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Good riddance in my opinion. Anyone running a server who thinks themselves so elevated that they feel they can hold the developers hostage so as to force development to be dictated by them, should go by the wayside. Others will pick up the demand and do an even better job, without the self entitlement, and arrogance. The sow server will not be missed.
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Completely agree with this comment. When they posted on their website that they would not include the newly released Mosquito on their server until their demands to fix the A8 issues where met, half of me busted up laughing and the other half was like, “are you serious??” You’re denying your players a badly needed attack aircraft (that finally adds some real firepower to the allied side, in a flight sim that is desperate for new aircraft and every new plane has to be built individually from the ground up) because of bugs in another aircraft!?!?! If the plane had so many bugs how about removing the plane with the issues or just role with the issues like adults. The whole idea wreaked of entitlement. I’ve been flying warbirds on DCS servers long before SOW came along and everytime a WW2 server goes away a better one comes along. I’m sure that will be the case again.
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