Disney Shuts Down Both Marvel: Avengers Alliance Games

[Ares]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/disney-shuts-down-both-marvel-avengers-alliance-ga/1100-6443252/

 

[uPDATE] A Disney spokesperson reached out to GameSpot to provide the following statement:

 

"For more than four years, Marvel: Avengers Alliance has been one of DCPI's most successful games created for Facebook, and our hope was to continue the series with Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2, but the title has not met our performance expectations. As a result we have decided to focus our efforts on new game experiences."

 

Original story: Disney has been on a tear recently, announcing the shutdown of Disney Infinity in May. Now, the company has announced its discontinuing two more games: Marvel: Avengers Alliance and its sequel, which launched only six months ago.

 

 

"Today we are announcing the shutdown of Marvel: Avengers Alliance and Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2 on all platforms, including the App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Windows Phone Store, and Facebook," Disney announced on its website. "Beginning today, we are no longer accepting new purchases or downloads, but the games will be available to play until September 30, 2016."

 

The reason given for shutting down the two games was to shift "development focus towards other online and mobile play experiences, and a growing selection of Disney Mobile apps."

 

"We greatly appreciate the passion and support of all our players. This was a difficult decision, but we plan to focus our efforts on new games for our fans and community," the company stated. "Thank you for your playing."

 

It's not clear if Disney will refund any purchases, but we've contacted it for comment and will update this article as we receive more information.

 

Other Marvel games such as Marvel Heroes and Marvel: Contest of Champions are unaffected by these shutdowns.

 

September 30 is the same day the PC version of Disney Infinity bought from the official website becomes unplayable. The Windows Store version will stick around until March 3 next year, while the Steam version will function normally without online support indefinitely.

[Doktor]

How in the heck do these companies shut down games that you paid to use? You invest money, and then they make the game unplayable? WTF? That's absurd. They need to at least make the base game playable. Even if they don't add new content. It would be like going to the store, buying a game, and then because they don't like the performance or sales, they just brick your game.

[The First Avenger]

I get what you are saying but you can't compare it to going to a store and purchasing a game, even though with more games going online only this is something that will be coming more common in the future. These games are free to play and you only pay for "convenience" features like unlocking characters early by buying more currency. They go by the "everything is free and can be unlocked by just playing" motto. It doesn't make it right but it is the chance you take with these types of games.

[Doktor]

I get what you're saying, I just think it's really really awful business. I still don't find it any less absurd that they can essentially screw their player base royally. It's really bad PR too. I play Marvel: CoC and I know that if they just bricked the game because they weren't making enough money on it, I'd be furious. I haven't dumped THAT much money into it, but I've still probably dumped about $75-100 into it over the past year. And I'd lost my stuff if they just made it unplayable.

[The First Avenger]

They will probably dump it so be prepared. All of these free to play online games with micro transactions are like this. It is awful, I have a lot of money tied up in Marvel Heroes on PC and while I haven't played that game for a few months, I would hate for it to shut down and I wouldn't be able to play it anymore when I get the itch.

[Doktor]

They've been expanding content like a monster for the past few months for CoC. And they have some players that have dumped literally thousands of dollars into the game. I don't expect the game to go anywhere anytime soon, but I know it'll happen eventually. Hopefully after I get bored with it & move on.

[Buzzetta]

I am keeping my fingers crossed that they continue to support Marvel Puzzle Quest...

 

That's my crack

[Ares]

Mine is Transformers Earthwars

[Buzzetta]

I am still playing Simpsons Tapped Out but someone generously hacked my game and gifted me the premium currency.

 

So I am now indifferent as to what will eventually happen as there is no investment in it

[Amadeus Arkham]

Marvel Puzzle Quest

Dream Season Soccer 2016

 

That is all.