Square Enix has announced they will be ending seasonal support for their live service title Foamstars a little less than a year after launch. The Japanese developer has explained that the next seasonal update, the ironically named ‘The Party Goes On!’, will in fact bring an end to the party once and for all.
The Party Goes On! will begin on December 13th, 2024, and run until January 17th, 2025. After that, no additional content will be released. In a notice to players Square Enix wrote:
In this concluding update, expansions will be introduced to enhance gameplay, such as the ability to customize shots of each character, and new enhancement elements, such as Prism Gems, all aimed at ensuring players can continue to enjoy the game for the foreseeable future
All online services will remain available after the “Party Goes On!” season ends. In addition, we plan to hold the Foamstars Cup, a series of in-game events named after each character.
Square Enix additionally noted that previous seasons will be made available again so that potentially new players can enjoy the full content of the games once content is ended. Players will be able to switch between these seasons to earn anything they have missed or think looks interesting. In a less common move, Square Enix has not given a date they plan to end service completely, implying the servers will be live at least for the foreseeable future. This being said, it is clear Square Enix plans to move away from the title unless at least they finally pull the plug completely.
In a separate blog post from Foamstars producer Kosuke Okatani, it was reiterated that no new content would be coming for the game. He stated:
I don’t want this to sound like a final message since you will be able to continue playing the game. However I wanted to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you all once again. Thanks to all of you, we’ve managed to successfully complete every update we had planned. We’ve been able to reach this point because of your warm support. On behalf of the entire team, I’d like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude.
Okatani went on to express hope that the game might remain accessable for “years to come,” but ythis outcome does not look likely. He went on to say the development team saw many challenges during the production of the game, but it was the decision to make the game free to play roughly eight months after launch showcased a struggle to find an audience for the title.
This is not the first live service title to fail this year, feeling almost moot given the collosal implosion of Concord earlier in this year. Most recently, Ubisoft announced they would be ending support of their shooter XDefiant which will end service fully a little over a year after release.
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