Bandai Namco has announced that the digital sale and online services of its anime franchise fighter Jump Force will be ending throughout next year.
The news was shared on the official Bandai Namco Twitter pages for the US, UK and Europe, saying that digital sales will end on February 7 and 8 next year, depending on slightly differences in time zones. Online services will end between August 24 and 25 next year as well. Due to time zone selections concerning Japan, the US, and Europe, it is believed this will be a global take down.
When the multiplayer and online portions of the game go down, this will remove online events, clan functions, the notice board, leaderboards, the in-game store, online lobbies and ranked matches.
Jump Force can still be played after both the sales and online services stop however, as offline content and pre-purchased DLCs will still work in the game. Bandai Namco said: “We’d like to offer our sincere thanks to all Jump Force players for their years of support.”
Whilst no official reason was given for the decision, Jump Force released in February of 2019, and according to the NPD group during that month Jump Force was one of the most popular titles in North America, debuting only below Anthem in dollar sales, which also shut down.
These changes will impact the game on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.
In other news, Phil Spencer has said that Xbox is looking to acquire more “social, casual content”. This comes after the gaming giant has already acquired both Mojang and Zenimax.
Elsewhere, the director of Scorn has publicly apologised after telling backers concerned with the lack of communication about the title to “just ask for a refund”. This comes after the news that the title has been pushed back to 2022.
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