Official line
Adobe ended sales and development of Director.
Adobe · Developer Tools · Product
1987–2017 · 30 years in market
Launched
Jan 1, 1987
Discontinued
Feb 1, 2017
Cause of death
Too early / too late
Evidence
Unsourced
The authoring tool behind Shockwave and a generation of CD-ROM titles. Development ended in 2017.
Adobe ended sales and development of Director.
Editorial reading
CD-ROM is not a market. A 1990s authoring metaphor does not become a 2010s engine.
When the distribution medium dies, the authoring tool dies unless you rebuild for the next one.
Unsourced — editorial reading
No primary source is attached yet. Treat the interpretation as editorial, not a citation.
Same company, category, or cause of death.
Adobe
1996–2020 · 24 yrs
The plugin that was the interactive web: banners, games, video. Security, mobile, and HTML5 ended it on a published date.
Adobe
2012–2020 · 8 yrs
A no-code website builder in Creative Cloud. Killed as Adobe bet on Adobe XD, then webflow-class tools elsewhere.
Adobe
1998–2013 · 15 yrs
Web-first bitmap/vector design Macromedia built. Adobe bought it, then starved it next to Photoshop.
Adobe
1995–2019 · 24 yrs
Director’s web plugin for CD-ROM-class multimedia. Quietly EOLed before Flash’s louder funeral.