Marvelous AQL had a pretty decent idea; take the social game, get some of the biggest names in the industry behind them, release them in the biggest market for them. Apparently, something didn’t quite go according to plan, as the whole set has been shut down for unknown reasons.
Probably the best known in the US would have been Suda51’s No More Heroes: World Ranker, where you created an assassin and tried to brawl your way to the top. There was also an interesting concept developed by Keiji Infune (the creator of Mega Man) where you were the awesomest President since Harrison Ford in Air Force One, and another by Noritaka Funamizu (best known for his involvement in the Street Fighter series) that combined a social game with a fighting game. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you’re vehemently anti-social games), they’re all… well… no more.
Since there doesn’t seem to be a press release, there’s nothing to really go on here other than speculation. You could argue that the social game bubble is popping (as Square Enix apparently believes), the servers could have been slightly costly to maintain, making it better to just give it a quiet death, or they just might have been on the outside looking in for a booming market. If it becomes a trend, it’s probably the first one.
Any thoughts? I know quite a few of you are probably dancing and saying “I told you so” right now.
