Today Square Enix announced that it's terminating another mobile game, Echoes of Mana, known as Seiken Densetsu: Echoes of Mana in Japan.
According to the official announcement shared on social media, the game will shut down on May 15, 2023, at 6:00 am UTC. That's just a little over a year after its worldwide release on April 27, 2022.
The announcement comes with an apology from the development team, which strived to provide an "incredible and enjoyable gaming experience" and continued to develop new features and events, yet has come to the conclusion that it would be difficult to maintain the app's experience.
That's usually game-as-a-service lingo that translates as "the game was a flop and didn't make enough money."
The team acknowledges that the game didn't last long, but they hope to see players continue to play as they bring "exciting updates and content" that they're "sure to enjoy." At least players won't be left hanging as the finale of the main story is in development and will be released before the game closes permanently.
A welcome fact is that an artbook is being created so that people can still enjoy the game's art. Many mobile games come with very nice artwork that is one of the main attractions behind their gacha, and it tends to go lost and become inaccessible after the game's closure.
New chapters of the main quests will be published on February 22, March 9, March 23, and April 6. The latter will be the final chapter before the game's service ends.
Echoes of Mana was the latest title of the classic Mana JRPG series which debuted in 1991 with Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden known in the west as Final Fantasy Adventure.
Coincidentally, this comes just a few days after Take-Two Interactive CEO Strass Zelnick spoke out about the challenges of achieving success on mobile with IPs designed on consoles. This appears to be a lesson many developers, especially in Japan, don't seem to have learned just yet.
