Namco Bandai Mysteriously Pulls Noby Noby Boy From App Store

[Karloff]

Namco Bandai Mysteriously Pulls Noby Noby Boy From App Store

After nearly three years, the creator of Katamari Damacy's latest is leaving iOS in October.

The reasons for doing so are still unclear, but Namco Bandai intends to pull Noby Noby Boy - the quirky stretch puzzler put together by Katamari Damacy creator [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103998-Katamari-Creator-Starts-New-Company] Keita Takahashi - from the iOS store, effective October 9th. "We are sorry to inform you that this application will soon be unavailable from the App store," is all the official announcement says, and this means that there will be no more updates or fixes for the app.

Not that fixes have been all that frequent in the past, as the game's Facebook connectivity has been glitchy at best for a while now. Judging by the comments at the iOS store [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noby-noby-boy/id355479163?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4], frequent crashes are also a problem. Still, the game has its fans, chief among them Takahashi, the man behind the Boy. Takahashi said in a blog post that he was very sorry to see Noby Noby Boy go.

"[Noby Noby Boy] is totally silly app but I'm enjoying it sometimes even now," Takahashi said [http://www.uvula.jp/bye-bye-boy]. "Thank you for playing this silly app."

Though the game had a lot of fan support, its unique gameplay meant it wasn't for everyone. You played as the Boy who could stretch out his abdomen. "That's all there is to it," explains the Fairy who serves as narrator, "except, of course, there are so many ways to stretch him. That's what makes the game so much fun." Points are gained and can be submitted to Girl up in space who then unlocks new levels; the intent being to explore the solar system [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115110-Noby-Noby-Boy-Stretches-to-Uranus], stretching out from Earth to the stars.

Though the Namco Bandai announcement doesn't make it clear, the points submission was done online and, since functionality is cut, presumably Girl no longer accepts points after October 9th. That means Boy has explored as much of the iOS universe as he ever will.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/05/namco-bandai-removing-noby-noby-boy-from-ios-app-store/]


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[GenGenners]

I played the PSN version of this. Very trippy. Literally trippy, especially when stretched across a road and you trip up passers-by.

.......I forgot where I was going with this.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Pity, that.

I'll gladly admit that the Noby Noby Boy titles aren't exactly top notch technically, but, heck, those are games you can just enjoy even when you have no clue about what it actually is you're doing, or what you're supposed to do. It's just insane fun. Yes, I, too started out stretching and contracting and jumping and making people and stuff bump into and trip over me. Then I started swallowing them all like a rainbow-coloured black hole monster from some horror movie. Then I pooped them all back out and jumped really high... really, really high, and we laughed our tits off.

Not sure if I'm a fringe minority group here, but I love me some Noby Noby Boy.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Why would they do this?

Does it cost money to be on the App store or is the service tracking how much noby has stretched cost that much? I don't see much logical reason to stop selling a digital game when you have to literally do nothing and always will be making you some money.

 

[weirdee]

also, if we don't get there in time, my reservations at the end of the universe will be voided and it took me millennia to get them

 

[AlexanderPeregrine]

Why would they do this?

Does it cost money to be on the App store or is the service tracking how much noby has stretched cost that much? I don't see much logical reason to stop selling a digital game when you have to literally do nothing and always will be making you some money.

This is just baseless speculation, but maybe Apple requires some level of maintenance to keep the certification and Namco, after seeing they made about ten bucks off of it the previous few months, decided not to bother? It's kind of similar to the Fez patch debacle, but even if Apple doesn't charge for re-certification, it still costs time and money to reprogram it.