Embracer Group halts the sale and support of several mobile games that were previously owned by Square Enix. The games will not only disappear from the stores but will be completely unplayable.
The games in question are: A few days ago, the developer Onoma, formerly part of Square Enix, announced that several of their games will disappear from the Google and Apple app stores on December 1. In-game purchases within these games have already been halted.
As of January 4, 2023, these games will also be unavailable to buyers. They will be unplayable. While some of them are free-to-play, others were paid. The affected mobile games are:
- Arena Battle Champions
- Deus Ex GO
- Hitman Sniper: The Shadows
- Space Invaders: Hidden Heroes
This is the background: If the name of the developer doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because it was known by another name earlier this year. The studio was originally called “Square Enix Montreal” and was part of the assets that the Japanese company Square Enix sold to the Embracer Group in May 2022.
The purchase was followed by a rebranding, during which the developer was renamed Onoma. But not even 3 months after the new name was registered, Embracer announced that Onoma would be closed.
“Welcome to the Future”
Here are some reactions: Some buyers and players of Onoma’s titles expressed their opinions on Twitter about the news. They posted in quote retweets, as replies to the announcement are disabled. Most of them are far from happy about how Embracer is handling the shutdown of the games:
- “Imagine buying a game only to have it taken away from you […]” – @temporalwar
- “Welcome to the future” – @Lord_Arse
- “Isn’t the new, purely digital world wonderful? ‘We don’t want you to play our old games’ […]” – @DarkBlueMonkey
- “How is this even legal? We paid for these games, and now they’re being removed from the store. Not just ‘it can’t be purchased anymore,’ no. It takes away the ability for owners to play.” – @stikves
MMO fans will be familiar with this practice. When a multiplayer game doesn’t attract enough players, it is sooner or later shut down, and players lose access to it. Each year, entire series of MMORPGs go offline because of this.
However, Embracer’s decision has been met with confusion in this case, as Deus Ex GO can also be played offline. There was no explanation as to why exactly the 4 games mentioned are affected and whether others like Tomb Raider GO might follow.
