Despite a hardcore of users, Lionhead has announced it's to shut down the servers for The Movies Online, the digital distribution mode of its 2005 sim, The Movies on December 8th.

One of the last titles released by the studio before Microsoft acquired the outfit, The Movies suffered from being ahead of its time, with a strong creative and social community underpinning its 'run a Hollywood studio' gameplay.

Lionhead issued a statement by Development Director Mark Webley, who said, "The Movies Online has shown how much creativity and originality there is amongst gamesplayers. The Movies helped create movies like The French Democracy which attracted world-wide media attention. But three years on, would-be film makers now have many more outlets for their creativity which also attract a wider audience. So we have taken the difficult decision to close The Movies Online. We‘d like to thank everyone who has posted a movie or visited the site over the past three years".

Despite its ground-breaking gameplay and critical success, The Movies flopped badly at retail, breaking into the UK All Format Top 40 once – and even that was in lowly 28th place.

But it's not the end – The Movies Online ethos looks set to continue at http://www.tmunderground.com and Machinima.com.