The App Store had evolved considerably over the years, but one of the most distinct divisions of time in the early days of the App Store was the release of Epic’s Infinity Blade. Our review, published almost exactly eight years ago today, does a great job of illustrating just how monumental the release of this game was. Over the next few years we’d see a sequel, and then Infinity Blade III would join the mix, turning the series into a trilogy. As of today, all three games are no longer available for purchase on the App Store. If you already own them, you can re-download them, but all the IAP has been disabled and the games should be accessible for the “foreseeable future." The reason for their removal, according to Epic is, “it has become increasingly difficult for our team to support the Infinity Blade series at a level that meets our standards."
This is one of those stories I never thought I would have to write, and in a way, writing this article feels a lot like when I tried to sit down and write my father’s obituary as I’m just completely beside myself. The Infinity Blade series is an absolute App Store staple, and something we’ve included in basically every “Best games for your new _______" article we write, like this one for the iPhone X S and the iPhone X S Max. The Infinity Blade series were bonafide Real Games that even the harshest critics of mobile gaming could admit were, at minimum, pretty good. There’s even actual, real deal books that have been written that expand the universe of the game- Something I’m not sure can be said for many, if any other mobile games.
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, but for it to happen to Infinity Blade seems … like an incredibly terrible signal for the overall health of the App Store. The Infinity Blade games were not only timeless effortless recommendations for anyone looking for good games, but I’d argue they’re also incredibly historically important for the platform. For them to just vanish like this feels unbelievable. I just … don’t even know what to think anymore. Epic is on top of the world right now, and it being “increasingly difficult" to support likely has everything to do with the dismal state of premium games on the App Store in 2018 and it just not being worth Epic’s while to continue supporting the Infinity Blade trilogy.
Just let that sink in for a minute. The game company that has the biggest hit in the world, and is raking in so much cash that they’re even opening their own online game distribution platform for developers with absurdly generous terms can’t make sense out of continuing to maintain their mobile games. Their mobile games which have been extensively featured by Apple at every possible opportunity and were effectively platform-defining when they were released are now … increasingly difficult to support.
What in the hell.
For real, what the hell.
How is this happening?
hum.. it seems that my predictions come true: the never ends careless IOS updates are making life difficult for the editors. I guess that infinity blade will be ported to more stable platforms like the Nintendo Switch or Sony PS4.
There’s better games on switch already this move seams pointless
Stuff like this is why I find it VERY hard to spend more than a couple of bucks for a mobile game even though I do end up spending hundreds of dollars a year on mobile games. Mobile games are treated like disposable items, some games disappear with no warning and others become unplayable because of an OS upgrade. It’s really a shame because I really like having premium games on my phone and it seems like Apple would want to do something to keep the mobile gaming market healthy since they profit with very little effort.
When you wrote,
“it has become increasingly difficult for our team to support the Infinity Blade series at a level that meets our standards."
I actually stopped reading the article to check on Wikipedia to make sure that this is, in fact, the same Epic that makes $1.5M per DAY from Fortnite on iOS. And they can't/won't fund a team to keep their legacy game working properly?
You got there too, of course ... "how is this happening" indeed. I wonder if anyone in the Apple ecosystem will take note of this?
Sad to see it go. I play it daily on my 2018 pro, played it on every device since launch and really ib3 only had two quirks going on with the 2018 model tablets. Doesn’t support the new curve edge of the screens and occasionally character shadows became blocky. Fingers crossed this is just doing what several developers have done over the years, pulling and then returning to the store with a new update.
Infinity Blade III
But Infinity Blade III is not updated for iPhone X resolution (no proper Xs Max support of course too), how could you recommend this title for new devices?
If it's a good enough game, those are trivial annoyances at best.
They also ceased development on Unreal Tournament for PC so they can concentrate on Fortnite. Back in 2017, they shut down servers on their big online game Paragon just 1 year after its release. So it's not just Infinity Blade getting the axe. Basically pulling away resources from games that aren't making them money.
Incredibly dramatic.. lol. They were good games tho
I think it’s easy to translate... We are moving our games to OUR digital distribution and Apple won't let us sell iOS games via OUR own shop. So we pull all games from AppStore. Fortnight is making money so we will let this one in AppStore for now.
And this is why I gave up on mobile gaming. Seriously. I got so tired of buying games that would just disappear, or being interested in games that would just disappear. There's a hundred games I bought for my iphone I meant to get around to playing, that I never got to, and now can never play. I literally just set hundreds of dollars on fire for all the good it got me from all the mobile games I bought with the intention to one day play and now cant.
This is why, these days, I only buy games that I want to play right this second. Anything that's "for later" goes on my wish list instead, because who knows whether it'll still be playable by the time I get around to it.
..
If you buy games "for later" , you really should think about not updating IOS until it´s necessary... I have 2 Ipad Mini´s for this purpose, loaded with games that have been nuked in the 32-bit cleanup. For re-play and so on.. My 2 cents...
Is it not more likely that given their very generous new Game store they cannot justify paying Apple the typical Apple Tax on the apps and therefore they decided to remove them? Perhaps they will open their own mobile store with all of their quality titles in it that doesn't give 30% of the revenue to Apple. Also, F&*k apple
On Android, sure, but that's a complete non-starter on iOS.
reallyrandom69 I agree
I’d much rather play any Infinity Blade game than sit through a round of Fortnite. Too bad more people like shooting fake people than slicing fake monsters with swords.
The amount of support required just to keep games working would seem to be at odds with an up front price model. The sheer amount of iOS updates that break games appear to make it unlikely that anything but free to play can survive. It’s an old story with Apple tech, so I simply play on other platforms.