Time is running short for robotic MMO Perpetuum Online — but plans are moving forward to keep the game alive with a couple of jury-rigged solutions.

Last September we reported that due to low population numbers and income, Perpetuum Online was ending active development while the team worked on a community-run standalone server solution. Now, it looks like it’s the end of the line for the official server, as the studio announced today that it has to take the hardware offline on January 25th due to the ongoing costs.

Fortunately, one of the team members is committed to keeping Perpetuum’s database and its contents alive on a semi-official private server for the time being: “This won’t be the same as the current official server in terms of speed and availability and it’s strictly a ‘no promises made’ gig, but it’s something.”

The cost of the game has been reduced to $5 on Steam and player servers are now up and running thanks to the release of the server source code. While the official game server won’t be available after the 25th, the team is keeping the website, dev blog, forum, official wiki, and Steam presence operational.

Then it came, the final goodbye: “This is probably the last blog post here from me, but Perpetuum became a big part of our lives and we couldn’t forget it even if we tried. We are immensely grateful to everyone who has played Perpetuum in the past and to the people who dedicate time to help it live on, well… perpetually.”