This morning, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced that the company would be shutting down the free to play, 2v2 fighting game Rise of Incarnates, which launched for PC on July 1 of this year. The game's servers will run until December 15 and Bandai Namco has halted sales of the game's in-game premium currency. In addition, the company has also opened up access to each of the game's characters until the end of the game's life. Previously, players would have to buy characters beyond their first two free "picks."
We did a Quick Look of Rise of Incarnates back in July, but even then I was a little concerned with the game's future. The game followed in a long line of other arena based fighting games, ranging from Virtual On to Bandai Namco's own Gundam Extreme VS series. Those games have become faster and more complex over the years, though, and Rise of Incarnates felt slow and flat in comparison. It didn't help that the game's setting and story--which had shades of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and X-Men--never graduated from "evocative" to "actually good." I also can't help but think that this game really should've been called "Rise of the Incarnates." It's a little, thing, I know, but... it just sounds better you know?
For fans of games like this, there is good news (at least if you have a Vita). The newest entry in the ExVS series, Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS Force, will be receiving an English release in Asian territories later this year. It'll probably cost a lot, but hey: Less microtransactions and more giant robots.
(And yes, if you're wondering, I have literally been checking the pages of major import game retailers to see when pre-orders will open every day since TGS.)