The industry is in a very strange place right now, this is the second day in a row we’ve seen a game closure after Marvel Heroes. NCSoft has announced they will be closing down their MOBA Master X Master.
This is a strange closure, MXM only launched in June of this year and it wasn’t bad at all, in fact, it had some great ideas with the PvE elements and dual heroes.
The MOBA market is a tough nut to crack but this closure has come as a surprise. With competition so fierce, it’s still puzzling why companies like NCSoft do not get their games on Steam faster or at launch, they wait until numbers start to drop. In MXM’s case, that was probably faster than expected and Master X Master never had the chance to make it to Valve’s platform.
NCSoft will be updating Master X Master until 31 January 2018 so enjoy it while you can. The statement from NCSoft reads:
There is no easy way to say this, but regretfully, we will be discontinuing our service for MXM, with the final day of the game’s life to be January 31. Deciding to close the game is not a decision we come to lightly, but ultimately it came down to a matter of business—we explored several options, but none of them were sustainable. We truly believe that MXM is special, and offered a lot of new ideas to change up the MOBA genre, but in trying to carve out a niche for itself, we failed to connect with players.
For the remainder of the game’s service, we’re going to do everything we can to honor the community and show thanks for your support. We know this news is difficult to hear for remaining players—trust that we are as heartbroken as you are that we have to say goodbye to it. To that end, in recognition of all of you who love playing the game, here are our plans from now until the servers close:
- All players will receive 500,000 X-Coin to unlock all content
- The community-developed Lua skin will be made available to all players for 1 X-Coin
- Real money purchases on the MXM Store will be permanently disabled
- All game modes will be turned on, and available at all times
- Refunds in full on purchases made between Aug. 30 and Nov. 16. This will happen automatically within the next 7-14 days, and will be refunded via the same method the purchase was made, if possible. For additional refund specifics please refer to our FAQ.
We are truly grateful for the community that grew around MXM, and for your support of the game. We saw MXM as a challenge to the status quo—a change-up of mechanics that would revitalize the MOBA genre and attract players who wanted to test the upper limits of their skills—but in the end, it wasn’t enough to take on the established juggernauts. It truly is awe-inspiring to have been a part of the community’s creativity and passion—the art, videos, and guides, the emergent gameplay and meta as new Masters were introduced, the high-level online competitions, and more—truly, thank you.
We again want to extend our sincere gratitude to the MXM community, and hope you all can enjoy the remaining time with the game. We’ll be continuing to provide updates on the official forums, Twitter, and Facebook until January 31.
