It seems that Konami?s latest attempt at tapping into the mobile gaming market didn?t pay off as much as it had hoped. Konami?s latest entry in their Castlevania series Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls will be shutting down in September 2020. The game received a limited release, being a mobile-exclusive and also being region-locked to Canada only. There was anticipation on a much broader Western release, however with the recent news that came out yesterday, it seems this wider release won?t be happening.
Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, starting yesterday on July 9th displayed a message on startup to player stating that the game will be shutting down on September 9th 2020.
This image was posted to the Grimoire of Souls subreddit by u/FranciscoRelano
I think it would be safe to assume that since the game runs off a microtransactions economy, then the game wasn?t making enough money and this was what resulted in an announced closure of less than a year since it was first launched. Meanwhile, Konami?s worldwide release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for mobile that came out in March, while we can?t see any sales figures, does show more user reviews being left on the page. I think with that, it?s safe to imply Symphony of the Night?s port saw much greater success than that of Grimoire of Souls. Symphony of the Night also has an upfront payment which arguably may have lead to better success for Grimoire of Souls as a common point of discussion was how the game was designed in a way as to be played very easily without microtransactions, and yet had a reliance on them to drive the economy. It seems it would have been a much better move on Konami?s part just to put a small upfront fee from the get-go and then the game probably would have been more successful and more than likely have made Konami happier cause they?re making more $$$ off the back of the game and, of course, release the game outside more territories than just Canada?I think that might have helped just a little bit.
But oh well, seems Konami might just go back to their Pachinko machine business?
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