"Tribe Nine Cancelled Just Three Months Post-Launch"

It's rare for me to express true astonishment in writing, but I think I speak for most people when I say I was shocked to learn that Tribe Nine is set to be shuttered. According to a recent news post, the servers for Tribe Nine will be shut off on November 27th, with any upcoming updates now cancelled. Additionally, the game's paid Enigma Entities will be refunded, and in-game purchases will be halted.

It's an acrimonious end for Tribe Nine, which only a couple of months ago boasted over ten million downloads. Based on the anime series of the same name and featuring art by Danganronpa veteran Rui Komatsuzaki, the game offered regular ARPG gameplay along with the so-called Xtreme Baseball boss battles that fans of the series will recognize.

Tribe Nine's unceremonious axing continues a rather unpleasant trend over the last few years, where many releases have been cancelled after less than a year in service. For many fans of these releases, it can seem pretty hopeless to become invested in any of them, considering the looming threat of an end-of-service (EOS) announcement.

TribelessConsidering that Rui Komatsuzaki's art has graced the well-received Hundred Line -Last Defence Academy- on other platforms, there seems little reason why Tribe Nine would be cancelled on this service. However, being ditched so soon after launch may backfire on developer Akatsuki Games.

With another anime-based release on the horizon, Kaiju No.8: The Game, Akatsuki Games is likely banking on attracting fans of the existing series. But casual players may see Akatsuki's track record and hesitate at the idea of the same thing happening again. Either way, for fans of Tribe Nine, it's not exactly a happy Friday.

But, there are still many great releases out there to keep you going. Why not check out our latest feature covering the top five new mobile games to try this week on mobile for some of our top picks?