Once one of the crown jewels of Disney’s Marvel games, Marvel: Avengers Alliance and its sequel are both getting the axe on the same day.
Turn-based combat in the classic JRPG style turned out to be a pretty good fit for the Marvel Universe. Marvel: Avengers Alliance, which started out on Facebook several years ago before spreading to mobile, and its sequel, released this spring, both had their share of fans.
But not enough of them, it seems. Disney announced today (h/t to GameSpot for, well, spotting it) that both Marvel: Avengers Alliance and Avengers Alliance 2 were being permanently shut down across all platforms on September 30.
You already can’t download the game anew or make in-app purchases, but the lights will go out for good at the end of the month.
There was, of course, a thank you to the fans:
"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. Thank you for playing."
As well as a brief and somewhat vague FAQ answer to why the games were being closed:
"At this time, we are shifting our development focus towards other online and mobile play experiences, and a growing selection of Disney Mobile apps. We deeply appreciate your enthusiasm and loyal support for Marvel: Avengers Alliance and sincerely hope you will continue to enjoy the large variety of online and mobile play experiences Disney offers, and will bring you soon!"
That’s not wrong, as there are plenty of other online and mobile Marvel games out there, including Marvel Tsum Tsum, which just hit iOS and Android this week. Yet as GameSpot also points out, they seem to be coming now at the expense of other titles, including Disney Infinity and now the two Avengers Alliance games.
It’s also undeniable that we’re past peak Avengers in general, since the team has been split apart in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Just a hunch, but there should be another round of games featuring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on the way in late 2017 and early 2018, just in time for Infinity War.
Until then, we bid a fond adieu to MAA, as especially the first one kept us entertained for hours. Thanks for the memories and the ISO-8!
UPDATE: A Disney spokesperson reached out to give 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.”"
That’s bittersweet because MAA 2 didn’t catch on, but we’re always down for “new game experiences.”