Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for End of Life of Adobe Shockwave
Effective April 9, 2019, Adobe Shockwave will be discontinued and the Shockwave player for Windows will no longer be available for download.
Companies with existing Enterprise licenses for Adobe Shockwave continue to receive support until the end of their current contracts.
Adobe Shockwave is a browser-based multimedia platform for interactive applications and video games. Retiring the Shockwave player for Windows is the last step in a multi-year process: Adobe Director, an authoring tool for Shockwave content, was discontinued on February 1, 2017 and the Shockwave player for macOS was discontinued on March 1, 2017.
Adobe continues to offer a rich set of content creation tools through Creative Cloud, including Adobe Animate for authoring interactive content for multiple platforms, such HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash/Adobe AIR, and others.
For more information, please see the FAQ below.
As technologies evolve and the use of mobile devices has grown, interactive content has moved to platforms such as HTML5 Canvas and Web GL and usage of Shockwave has declined.
Starting on October 8, 2019, Shockwave player for Windows will no longer be available for download. Adobe is no longer accepting ETLA and EULA agreements for Shockwave effective on April 9, 2019.
Support for individual customers will end on October 8, 2019. Customers with EULA distribution licensing will continue to receive support until the end of their 1-year contract. Enterprise customers will continue to be supported until the end of their contracts in 2022.
Adobe is providing advance notice to help customers prepare for the change. Retiring the Shockwave player for Windows is the last step in a multi-year process: Adobe Director, an authoring tool for Shockwave content, was discontinued on February 1, 2017 and the Shockwave player for macOS was discontinued on March 1, 2017.
In its time, Adobe Director and Shockwave provided a powerful solution for creating and playing web-based animation and game content. Through Creative Cloud, Adobe offers a rich toolset for modern web content, prototyping, and design, including:
- Adobe Animate for authoring multimedia content for HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash/Adobe AIR, and other web-based platforms
- Adobe XD for designing and prototyping mobile and web-based user experiences
- Adobe Dreamweaver designing, coding, and publishing responsive website for browsers and mobile devices
Other Creative Cloud applications widely used in animation and design workflows include Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
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