Square Enix to close another gacha game, launches official fan community
Square Enix announced on May 17 that their smartphone game Towa Tsugai will be taken offline on July 23, 2024, with an official online fan community set to continue its story. The impact of this announcement has caused “Square Enix Social Games” to trend on Japanese X, with many people chiming in with concerns about the future of the company’s other live service gacha games.
I say “again” because there are quite a lot of long-running games that are being shut down this year. Last year, there were many games that were shut down within a year after release.
This can also be said about rival companies’ gacha games but I’m afraid to spend money on gacha when I don’t know if the game will be taken offline soon.
Others were pointing out how Square Enix’s New Medium-term Business Plan foreshadows the closure of such games, as Square Enix moves towards a “disciplined pipeline strategy” of quality over quantity, focusing on multi-platform titles (Related article). It also continues Square Enix’s trend of pruning back on their gacha games. Free-to-play mobile games like Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia and Nier Reincarnation are also among those that had their services ended this year.
The latest cancellation to be announced is Japan-only Yuri RPG mobile game Towa Tsugai. Releasing back in February 2023 on iOS and Android, the game was downloaded over 3.5 million times in the first five days. The title was popular enough for a stage performance of its story to be held in June 2023. Towa Tsugai’s service will end on July 23 2024 at 8pm, coinciding with the end of the second stage show’s final performance (Towa Tsugai II). According to the announcement, the decision to shut down the game was made because it was deemed difficult to provide a satisfactory service to users in the future.
However, the development of Towa Tsugai’s world, characters and story will continue beyond the game’s termination. An official online fan community for the game started accepting pre-registrations on May 17, the same day as the announcement of the game’s closure. Future chapters of Towa Tsugai’s story, written by the game’s scenario writer Nao Hakumoto, are set to be released on the platform complete with animation and full voice acting.
The community will be a space in which official creations and fan made works will coexist. In an open letter, Towa Tsugai’s producer Yoshinari Fujimoto explained that ever since the Towa Tsugai project started, he has always wanted to create a world that stretches beyond the game. In fact, Towa Tsugai has had a welcoming stance towards derivative works created by fans right from the very beginning (Related article).
Verity Townsend
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