Adobe plans to discontinue Shockwave, a platform based on program browser for interactive games and applications. His retirement will take place on April 9, 2019.
Adobe will remove Shockwave Player downloads for Windows from the websites and its servers on the Internet. The main reason is the rise of alternative technologies that have now supplanted Shockwave. The company notes that its Enterprise customers will continue to receive support for Adobe Shockwave until their contracts expire.
As technologies evolve and the use of mobile devices has increased, the interactive content it has moved to platforms like HTML5 Canvas and Web GL, and the use of Shockwave has decreased.
Shockwave was a platform, an old format, for CD-ROM based work, or as a format video games that their creators have published on online game sites. Developers used Adobe Director to create Shockwave content. The content could be viewed in any compatible web browser, provided that the browser has the Adobe Shockwave player plugin installed. Those readers who have been involved with the internet and computers for more than 10 years will surely remember this old platform as a kind of "video".
The rise of Adobe Flash overthrew Shockwave because of what it had functions which were not supported by Shockwave. Adobe discontinued Adobe Director and Adobe Shockwave Player for Mac OS as early as 2017. The Windows version of Shockwave Player is the latest version of Shockwave supported by Adobe. Its retirement in April 2019 ends support for all versions.
The end of the support does not mean that the Shockwave content will no longer work after that date. Shockwave will no longer be available for download from Adobe, but existing plugins can still be used to play Shockwave content.
Third-party download sites may continue to offer Shakenwave Player for Windows, and users can install the program on Windows devices.
Adobe Flash is the next Adobe product in the retirement program. Adobe plans to withdraw it multipath Flash in December of 2020. All major browser makers have announced that they will discontinue support for Adobe Flash and 2020.