HipChat was utter crap. At some point things are good enough.
IRC was fine. Really. And the clients didn't chew ram.
IRC’s main issue is not working well with phones or multiple devices I think? (Yes, IRCCloud is a thing but if you’re going with a SaaS already, you may very well just go with a proprietary solution).
>Chat is commoditized software at this point.
I don't think I follow your logic. Why would this lead to Hipchat being completely shutdown?