There once was a studio called Dropforge Games that developed a great mobile version of the PC game Card Hunter called Loot & Legends, a game I personally still enjoy playing. But then the juggernaut that is Wargaming.net, of World of Tanks Blitz (Free) fame, swooped in and bought the company, renamed it WG Cells, and had it focus exclusively on mobile titles. Unfortunately, that didn’t go so well. After developing just one game, Smash Squad, which is no longer available on the App Store as far as I can tell, the company has pretty much closed up shop, shutting down its Seattle studio. According to Wargaming, WG Cells’ closure is part of an attempt to “consolidate its efforts in other geographies and around other in-house teams which operate closer to or in the key growing mobile markets."
It’s disappointing to see the developer behind the really fun Loot & Legends possibly be out of the mobile gaming business. Smash Squad was pretty good too, although players in our forums complained about the many timers and pay walls in that one. Both Loot & Legends and Smash Squad were F2P games, but before you say that’s what doomed the developer, keep in mind that Wargaming is doing just fine with its F2P games. Regardless of the actual reasons behind WG Cells apparent closure, this is not a great day for mobile gaming, at least not in my eyes.
[via Gamasutra]
