Remember that story we ran a couple of weeks ago about the biggest mobile money-making games of Q1 2017? There were a lot of interesting things on those charts, with such famous games as Mobile Strike, Candy Crush Saga, Clash Royale, and Game of War ranking lower than a couple of games that barely register in the minds of Western players. One of those games, Fate/Grand Order, just had an English localization announced for this summer. Well, there must be some sort of law of conservation applied to Western versions of big social RPG hits, because XFLING has just sent out the word that the English version of Monster Strike (Free) will be ending service on August 1st, 2017.

As a resident of Japan, it’s utterly bizarre for me to think of Monster Strike ending anywhere. It’s been massively popular here virtually since launch, spawning spin-offs, card games, toys, TV shows, movies, and even credit cards. Its popularity isn’t unearned by any means; the game is terrific fun, especially with a few like-minded friends joining in. We gave the English version of the game a sparkling review at launch. The game was given an excellent localization and it seemed like it had a bright future ahead of it. Sadly, Monster Strike‘s Western version’s post-launch progression received a lot of criticism from players. Unlike the Japanese version, it didn’t get many cool collaborations with other brands, and it never quite seemed to find the playerbase its Japanese counterpart did. The game was dealt a devastating blow around one year ago when the online multiplayer modes were removed.

So with that knowledge in hand, I suppose it’s not that surprising that XFLING is pulling the plug on it. The game is still making money hand over fist in Japan, and will likely continue to do so for some time to come. As for the English version, XFLING will be rolling out a series of events in quick succession over the next couple of months. Purchases, new installs, and data recovery will be disabled as of July 2nd, 2017, and the servers will shut down for good on August 1st, 2017. Nothing is stopping you from grabbing the Japanese version if you want to keep playing, and there are certainly some similar alternatives around like Knight Slinger (Free) and Treasure Buster ($0.99). If you want to play the real thing, though, you’ll have to check that off of your list ASAP.