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Epic Games Removes 'Infinity Blade' Trilogy From App Store

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Epic Games today announced that its Infinity Blade role-playing game trilogy has been removed from the App Store.

infinity-blade.jpg

In a blog post, the video game studio said "it has become increasingly difficult for our team to support the Infinity Blade series at a level that meets our standards," adding that the trilogy "will always hold a special place" in its history.

Along with the three Infinity Blade games, all in-app purchase options have been removed, according to Epic Games. iPhone users who already purchased the games will remain able to play them, and re-download them from the App Store using the same Apple ID that was originally used, for the foreseeable future.

The news was first reported by Eli Hodapp at MacRumors sister site TouchArcade, who described the trilogy as "an absolute App Store staple" that "even the harshest critics of mobile gaming could admit were, at minimum, pretty good."

Infinity Blade is a gesture-based fighting game that debuted on the App Store in December 2010 following an on-stage preview at an Apple event three months prior. At the time, TouchArcade reviewed the game's console-like graphics as "the best we've seen so far on the App Store," raising the bar for mobile games.


Infinity Blade II followed in November 2011, while Infinity Blade III was released in September 2013. Both sequels also received stage time at Apple events, and remained critically acclaimed in 2018, despite the latest title being five years old.

"Premium games eventually losing the support of their developers then slowly falling into obscurity before being removed from the App Store isn't really a new phenomenon," said Hodapp, "but for it to happen to Infinity Blade seems like an incredibly terrible signal for the overall health of the App Store."

Epic Games now has a multi-billion-dollar valuation thanks to the success of its smash-hit battle royale game Fortnite, so the company certainly has the cash flow needed to keep the Infinity Blade trilogy alive, but they are evidently moving on.

Over the next month, Epic Games said it will continue to support Infinity Blade III with updated Clash Mobs and other surprises. It has also made its Infinity Blade sticker pack available for free in the App Store for iMessage. And it looks like the Infinity Blade sword will live on as a weapon in Fortnite.

Article Link: Epic Games Removes 'Infinity Blade' Trilogy From App Store
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/12/10/infinity-blade-games-removed-from-app-store/
I always wondered how that series did given that one of the games was showcased during an iPhone release event (from what I can remember).
 
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MacRumors said:
"Premium games eventually losing the support of their developers then slowly falling into obscurity before being removed from the App Store isn't really a new phenomenon," said Hodapp, "but for it to happen to Infinity Blade seems like an incredibly terrible signal for the overall health of the App Store."
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This is one reason why gaming on the iOS really sucks.
 
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MacRumors said:
iPhone users who already purchased the games will remain able to play them, and re-download them from the App Store using the same Apple ID that was originally used, for the foreseeable future.
Click to expand...

So, if I purchased the game, and get a new idevice, I will be able to download the game on the new idevice?

Well, this is something at least......
 
The most popular/money making games are all F2P. It's all about the continuing revenue stream these days, and gaming companies have gotten really good at it. Why continue to support old, paid apps when there's little to gain by doing so. It costs more to support than to just move along to find new ways to milk every last virtual coin from a gamer's pocket.
 
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newyorksole said:
Yeah, but eventually it won’t be downloadable. Happens to a lot of apps over time.
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This is one of the biggest reasons why iOS gaming sucks compared to console or PC gaming. At least for me, it is a fatal flaw for mobile gaming.

I am not a gamer, but I used to be. I like to go back and play my old consoles from the 80's and 90's and play old, but good Mac games.

Most of the iOS games are very disposable by nature, but a few of them are pretty good and worth replaying after a while. Will this even be possible after a few years?
 
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And another game soon to be lost forever. This is something that's bothered me for a long time about iOS, the constant "now" of the app store with the continual elimination of the old just because it won't be updated to run on the latest iOS version
 
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This is an example of why I look at 100% digital distribution of media with a lot of unease.

There is an enormous community of gamers who love playing classics on old hardware, but are we really going to be able to play these all-digital games even 10 years from now? Emulation is great, but 1) It is not always practical, and 2) It is often impossible to replicate the same user experience of playing on native hardware, thus defeating the purpose.

There have already been examples of content owners not just removing their media from distribution, but forcibly deleting that media from customers' devices. Even without that heavy-handedness, it's unlikely that these publishing platforms have any kind of longevity and they might just die of neglect over the years. Old content is sometimes impractical to re-license for a new platform and it will just disappear.

I buy a lot of digital media, but these days I'm buying certain paper books and rare movies on disc; at least that way the people who sold them to me can't force their way into my home and set them on fire.
 
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Abs_p said:
Is it just me or anyone else find the game extremely repetitive ?
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I did. Actually I forgot about it until I saw this. But I was in awe enough to play it for a few hours when it first came out. Couldn't believe such a game could run on a mobile phone.

Now, I still wonder why my iPhone 4 could run this game, but my iPhone 6S can't open Photos within less than 5 seconds.
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Soba said:
This is an example of why I look at 100% digital distribution of media with a lot of unease.

There is an enormous community of gamers who love playing classics on old hardware, but are we really going to be able to play these all-digital games even 10 years from now? Emulation is great, but 1) It is not always practical, and 2) It is often impossible to replicate the same user experience of playing on native hardware, thus defeating the purpose.

There have already been examples of content owners not just removing their media from distribution, but forcibly deleting that media from customers' devices. Even without that heavy-handedness, it's unlikely that these publishing platforms have any kind of longevity and they might just die of neglect over the years. Old content is sometimes impractical to re-license for a new platform and it will just disappear.

I buy a lot of digital media, but these days I'm buying certain paper books and rare movies on disc; at least that way the people who sold them to me can't force their way into my home and set them on fire.
Click to expand...
It is also a way to force old games to be obsolete so they can release something very similar or even a clone later. As it is, everyone is into selling 10-year-old games as remakes, but those are fair because the old ones are physical copies that users actually don't have the hardware for anymore.

Age of Empires II HD was a ripoff, though. They made the Steam version, which killed off the older communities as everyone switched, but then they put more bugs in the game than the original and literally made it a worse experience than playing on my iMac G3. Oh, and for some reason (aka Microsoft owning the game) no Mac version.
 
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Another set of games that will be hard to preserve going forward. It's sad they didn't let people know so they could buy them ahead of time before removing them from the App Store. That alone might have driven sales for a little while. It's frustrating to see games and apps disappear over time on iOS like this...
 
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MacRumors said:
"but for it to happen to Infinity Blade seems like an incredibly terrible signal for the overall health of the App Store."
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Kabeyun said:
This doesn’t seem true to me. Or the App Store revenue data.
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I think they meant the health of the library of Apps? At least that is how I took it.

If Devos are quick to drop support for older apps, and only keeping newer/money making apps alive, it isn't really good news for someone that uses the App Store for storage of their old apps, especially games.
 
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