Several Square Enix Montreal mobile titles are shutting down in the beginning of 2023. The affected games include Deus Ex Go, Hitman Sniper: The Shadows, Space Invaders: Hidden Heroes, and Arena Battle Champions. The games will be unplayable on January 4.
The games will be permanently removed from the Google Play and Apple App Store on December 1, while in-game purchases will no longer be available today. What is more galling from the announcement however is that it appears players who paid for Deus Ex Go won't be able to access them after the cut off date.
TheGamer checked and at the time of writing Deus Ex Go is still available on the App Store and being sold for £4.49. The game has an Editor's Choice award and is a highly rated strategy puzzler. But according to its makers: "Current players will not be able to access the games past January 4th". That's right, it appears a game customers paid money for will be deliberately rendered unplayable in just over a month.
Embracer Group purchased the rights to Deus Ex, Hitman, and Tomb Raider from Square Enix ealier this year, and the conglomerate has decided to shut some of the mobile titles based on these series down. Those who made in-game purchases shouldn't expect any money back either. "We encourage prior in-game purchases to be used before January 4th, as they will not be refunded," the now-defunct Onoma studio (previously known as Square Enix Montreal) announced on its Twitter page.
Embracer rebranded the studio to Onoma last month but just weeks later announced that it would be shutting the developer down, with around 200 people affected. It's currently unknown what will happen to the studio's other titles such as Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go, and the original Hitman: Sniper.
The reasons why Embracer is doing this is unclear but it is known the company isn't so interested in mobile games. It shouldn't be a rights issue. According to games journalist Jason Schreier, Embracer's choice to close down Onoma is due to the company's pivot to focus on PC and console only.
For those who want to play these games, make sure to get your sessions in before January 4. Following that the only way to play will be by manually installing a copy of the APK found online but you wouldn't steal a game, would you?
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