Bandai Namco Pulling iOS Tales of Phantasia, Making it Unplayable

[roseofbattle]

Bandai Namco Pulling iOS Tales of Phantasia, Making it Unplayable

When Bandai Namco pulls the free-to-play iOS port of Tales of Phantasia, the app and all in-app purchase content will disappear.

Bandai Namco will pull the iOS version of Tales of Phantasia on August 28, making the game unusable at that point, after it launched the mobile version in January. Bandai Namco will cease the app's distribution on July 29.

Tales of Phantasia is the first game in the Tales series. Originally released on the Super Famicom in Japan, it's been released on various platforms over the past 19 years. The iOS version of Tales of Phantasia is free to play and supported by microtransactions. The story remains the same, but user complaints point to a system in the game that ramps up the difficulty in such a way that the game is difficult to finish without making in-app purchases.

Because the app requires players to be online to save their progress, once Bandai Namco pulls the app and all associated services, Tales of Phantasia on iOS will become unplayable.

In the termination notice, Bandai Namco stated, "We apologize sincerely to all of our customers for this inconvenience, and hope you continue to enjoy our products and services in the future."

This is sad news for Tales of Phantasia fans. The only other official English version of the game released on the GameBoy Advance and had a poor translation; both the GBA and iOS versions have been poor rereleases for the series' first game.

Source: Touch Arcade [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tales-phantasia-english-ver./id722694373?mt=8]


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[SecondPrize]

So when they say, "...and hope you continue to enjoy our products and services in the future," I guess they're not talking about Tales of Phantasia.

 

[Fappy]

Wow, this is fucking pathetic. And these publishers wonder why people pirate their games.

 

[Trishbot]

Wow, this is fucking pathetic. And these publishers wonder why people pirate their games.

You can track down an emulation of the game with a superior fan-translation and get it up and running hassle free for as long as your computer lasts in less than five minutes at the cost of zero dollars.

Someone once said the best way to fight piracy is to provide a SUPERIOR service than what pirates offer. This isn't just not being superior, this isn't just not being competitive, this is only going to actively encourage piracy... because you're certainly not getting your money's worth from the real thing.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

It's a bright future! Play until the publisher decide that is enough.

 

[Worgen]

This is why I don't pay for any games on my phone, they have a lifespan and I hate that shit.

 

[sageoftruth]

I liked the Super Nintendo version better anyway.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

The fan-translated SF ROM still stands as the best, and with the prevalence of SF/SNES emulators, it can be played on about anything from the last five years.

And then you've got the whole input thing, where these kind of games don't work well unless you completely retool the mechanics for touchscreen, the case being that for an real-time game, multiple buttons and a d-pad doesn't emulate too well on a touchpad.

 

[fight me in space]

Are people really torn up about an iOS port of a PSX port of an SNES game being taken down? The game was garbage, and Bamco clearly knew that, which is why they decided to get rid of it. At least they didn't try and run some bullshit line like "The problem is that we innovated too much, and a lot of players weren't ready for it".

 

[Oskuro]

"We apologize sincerely to all of our customers for this inconvenience, and hope you continue to enjoy our products and services in the future."

Ironic, seeing how discontinuation of online-only products precisely means you can't enjoy them in the future.


Of course they actually mean "buy other stuff we put out later on", to which I'd answer: "So you can pull the plug again and take away stuff I paid for? NO"


I know it is rather hopeless currently, but if more people were to say no to these practices, maybe things would change. Oh, and cue Bandai-Namco claiming they "innovated too much"

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Are people really torn up about an iOS port of a PSX port of an SNES game being taken down? The game was garbage, and Bamco clearly knew that, which is why they decided to get rid of it. At least they didn't try and run some bullshit line like "The problem is that we innovated too much, and a lot of players weren't ready for it".

You gotta love how people will look for any reason to excuse a video game company doing something shitty, yet if EA does anything, regardless of how shitty it is, they're the fucking devil.

Regardless of whether or not the game sucked, the fact of the matter is that people were playing it, some of them seemed to enjoy it, and more importantly, some of them spent money on the game. Now it's all just gone, people who threw money at the game because they were legitimately having fun with it just had it all flushed down the toilet. Good game or not, that is a shitty move. Hate on EA all you want, at least they're leaving Dungeon Keeper up for the people who are enjoying the game (and yes those people exist) and have made in-game purchases.

 

[ShirowShirow]

Behold!

Poor monetization! Poor controls! Poor localization! Inability to play the actual game after a time despite being single-player! A cheap cash-in on nostalgia!

Everything wrong with the games industry in a convenient package.

 

[CriticalMiss]

"We apologize sincerely to all of our customers for this inconvenience, and hope you continue to enjoy our products and services in the future."

I'm sure people will enjoy them until you decide to take them away from customers because you can't be arsed any more.

Did they even say why they are breaking their own game?

 

[weirdee]

isn't it great how they can just rent people a game that could probably fit on their phone hundreds of times and then pull the plug on it

 

[gridsleep]

George Carlin tried to explain it to you. "You don't matter." If the profit falls below a certain level, jettison. That's corporate strategy. It's been that way since, like, the Han Dynasty. Why are people always surprised when it happens?

 

[Vareoth]

This is why right now I feel more like buying books instead of games (proper books with real paper, FYI).

Bandai Namco is a champion of bad business practices though. So this shouldn't surprise anyone.

 

[micwilli]

This is why right now I feel more like buying books instead of games (proper books with real paper, FYI).

The worst part of this is that it sets a bad president for customer service in general. Wait till they stop making paper books at all and watch publishers do the same thing. Wait for a day when "owning" media is over and only "renting" is allowed.