The studio says it's lost too much "legacy knowledge" to keep it going.

Cryptic’s Foundry system, implemented in both Star Trek Online and Neverwinter, has traditionally been one of the best-loved player content creation tools in the entire MMO verse, in spite of its many (many) ups and downs and long stretches offline under construction – and now it’s going away forever.

“On April 11, we are sad to announce that we will be sunsetting the Foundry system for Neverwinter and Star Trek Online,” Perfect World announced this morning. “This decision was not made lightly; the Foundry was a passion project for many of us, and we have loved seeing the unique stories and awesome content our Foundry Authors have produced.”

So why give up now? PWE suggests the “legacy knowledge required to maintain the Foundry” at its standards is “no longer available.”

“Our goal is to continue creating top-notch content for our current and upcoming games – and the development time and resources required to maintain the Foundry would impede on these new features and systems. To reiterate, this decision does not impact any other game feature or content development for Star Trek Online, Neverwinter, Champions Online, or future titles.”

There’s a tiny bit of silver lining: If you took part in Foundry missions or authored any yourself, you’ll be picking up some in-game swag, including badges, space pets, Foundry spotlights, genesis torpedo ground devices, titles, or capes, depending on what you did.

The studio is promising a tribute livestream this afternoon at 6 p.m. EST.