Yet another live service game is facing execution less than a year after its launch: Gundam Evolution. Bandai Namco’s Overwatch clone may not be the most popular free-to-play FPS on the market, but the title’s death comes mere months after its release.
Revealed in a blog post on the game’s official website, Gundam Evolution is on the chopping block after receiving underwhelming player numbers. The game currently has over concurrent 400 players active on Steam at the time of writing, but that’s not enough.
In the post, the Gundam Evolution Executive Producer Kazuya Maruyama revealed that the FPS game is closing down on all platforms come November 29th. Despite this, the game will receive two more updates.
On August 23rd, a new unit and two new maps will be added to the game. Afterwards, the final update will land on October 25th, adding one more unit and a new map, all of which will be unplayable this November.
“We wanted to create a title that brought FPS fans and Gundam fans together. We challenged ourselves to create an authentic Gundam FPS game that could be played globally,” Maruyama told fans. “Unfortunately, we have determined that it is no longer possible for us to provide a service that satisfies our players.”
The game’s executive producer then apologised to players of the game and expressed his gratitude for those who have the FPS title a shot.
Prior to the game’s shutdown this November, Gundam Evolution will end the sale of its microtransactions content so that fans don’t buy useless items that will be unusable later this year.
EVO coins and EC Pod Limited sales will be shut off on July 26th. Unfortunately, players who have already purchased microtransactions will not be refunded. The game will also be introducing massively boosted Capital Points rewards for fans during the shutdown period, allowing them to unlock new items as the game reaches its expiration date.
The closure of Gundam Evolution is yet another example of live service games failing. In February 2023, 15 live service games had already been killed, including Apex Legends Mobile, Babylon’s Fall and more. Furthermore, games such as GTA Online have removed content that fans have paid for, similar to Destiny 2 vaulting content away until they decide fans can play them.
There’s also the obvious issue of game preservation. While some online games, such as the GOAT Phantasy Star Online, have been revived by fans, not every online title will be resurrected years into the future. When a live service game dies, it will likely be dead forever.