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[Spyxos]

A little under a year since its debut, Bandai Namco Online's Gundam Evolution has been announced as shutting down.

A free-to-play hero shooter set in the world of the popular anime, Gundam Evolution arrived on Steam last September, with a console version then following in December.

However, Gundam Evolution evidently hasn't taken off in the way the developer had hoped, with Bandai Namco Online now announcing its service will end on 29th November.

At the time of writing, the game only has 292 players, with a 24-hour peak of 688 players. These figures are far below what the game debuted with.
Gundam Evolution had an all-time player peak of 56,911, but this is listed as 10 months ago, around the time of its launch.

Gundam Evolution shutting down, launched less than a year ago

A little under a year since it made its debut, Bandai Namco has announced Gundam Evolution is shutting down.

www.eurogamer.net

 

[MarkMe2525]

I played for a night. It was fun, but more of the same. I'm surprised because of the franchise that they don't have a few more whales.

 

[feynoob]

Future live service games.

 

[boomcrab]

It was neat conceptually but the execution wasn't there. I think it definitely had some spirit. I haven't played all the Gundam games but there never seems to be just a slam dunk game that ever existed in the franchise. Wouldn't be cool if we just got a really bombastic single player game like on a ff16 level? Just start back to the original story we don't need every Gundam in every game. Just a nice tight little experience.

 

[Fake]

Another live service to dust.

 

[Gaiff]

Another live service to dust.

Pretty much. Another day, another dead GAAS.

 

[TransTrender]

I'm guessing these guys are up next

https://steamdb.info/app/1276760/charts/

 

[CoreyFlawless]

Man that sucks. I play a few games a week. I enjoy it. Gonna miss it

 

[rofif]

That's way more people than returnal

 

[MiguelItUp]

Honestly, this game had potential. But from what I understand, they just don't support it enough and everything got stale super quick.

I'm guessing these guys are up next

https://steamdb.info/app/1276760/charts/

This game is SO awful. They were smart to charge for it, cause it would've been dead by now. I have no idea how it's still up. Probably just the power of the DB IP alone.

 

[Mr Moose]

GunGod dam, that was quick.

 

[Robb]

A free-to-play hero shooter

 

[Saber]

"Its easy, just make it a GaaS. Easy money!"

The thing is when one falls another one rises up.

 

[havoc00]

What went wrong?

 

[Varteras]

It's time for them to make a Gundam game the way they did with the best Gundam game of all time...

 

[Skifi28]

Bye, now make a proper gundam game.

 

[poodaddy]

It's time for them to make a Gundam game the way they did with the best Gundam game of all time...

Holy fuck, there's another one!!!!! Dude I love that fuckin game, and I have literally never met another human being in my 36 years that has played it lol. Great game, would love to see a modern port as two sticks would help with controlling the mobile suits quite a lot.

 

[Roman Empire]

There are just too many live service games for just so many players. Live services games have to be trimmed down by the studios or the player numbers will do it naturally. I can already see Blue Protocol flopping as well. It built enough hype but lost the momentum with all the delays and so many games out there to take its space. The great live-service wild west is about to be over.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Well damn, there goes all the money I dropped on Nu, Unicorn, Marasai and Dynames

 

[Varteras]

Holy fuck, there's another one!!!!! Dude I love that fuckin game, and I have literally never met another human being in my 36 years that has played it lol. Great game, would love to see a modern port as two sticks would help with controlling the mobile suits quite a lot.

Game was such a gem that too few people know about.

 

[March Climber]

Man that sucks. I play a few games a week. I enjoy it. Gonna miss it

Yea this was actually a good GAAS game(same with Splitgate), but I guess most of GAF won't care if all of the good stuff goes too, as long as GAAS eventually dies

What doesn't make sense to me are the ones here who want games like Unreal Tournament and Quake Arena to come back knowing that a quick and painful death also awaits them.

 

[Sakura]

It was ok, but kind of boring. It didn't feel particularly Gundam. Just an FPS in a Gundam skin.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

The live service fail parade continues. Maybe make a good single player game next time.

 

[Gorgon]

 

[Aion002]

It was neat conceptually but the execution wasn't there. I think it definitely had some spirit. I haven't played all the Gundam games but there never seems to be just a slam dunk game that ever existed in the franchise. Wouldn't be cool if we just got a really bombastic single player game like on a ff16 level? Just start back to the original story we don't need every Gundam in every game. Just a nice tight little experience.

The SD Gundam G Generation games on PS1 are amazing, Zeonic Front on PS2 is awesome and on PS3 Gundam Unicorn (developed by From Software) and Gundam Extreme Vs (also available on PS4) are excellent.

Those are the best Gundam games I've played, they’re worth checking out if you haven't.

Anyway, it's a pity, but expected, Bamco gundam online games are usually short-lived, they killed SD Gundam Online and Breaker Online recently too... Let's see how long Battle Operations 2 will last.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Where's the next SRW game announcement

 

[Doom85]

I can already see Blue Protocol flopping as well. It built enough hype but lost the momentum with all the delays and so many games out there to take its space. The great live-service wild west is about to be over.

I thought Blue Protocol was a MMO RPG? I’m not saying it might not flop, but is it comparable to these sorts of live service games?

 

[Dread Burner]

I thought Blue Protocol was a MMO RPG? I’m not saying it might not flop, but is it comparable to these sorts of live service games?

MMOs are live service games, especially F2P ones chock-full of microtransactions. They're just not hero-based shooters and have more content than these generic shooter type games

 

[STARSBarry]

You know this game had a good few things going for it, the problem was it was literally worse than Overwatch 2 in pretty much every way... and overwatch 2 sucked.

Most damning was the MTX model which was just... well it was Japanese, and by that I mean lootboxes + locking shit behind an extremely slow to progress battle pass. New suits where locked behind a currency for f2p players that you could run out of with no way to generate more as their was only a finite amount of challanges. Meaning if they released some new OP suit you where fucked unless you paid up.

The map design was just... bad, it's hard to describe. I would say that most of the suits played well, although some felt like they where forced into being a clone of some overwatch hero.

I am not suprised, I dropped this almost immediately on launch once I understood how the MTX worked. Writing was on the wall at that point for me.

 

[Roman Empire]

I thought Blue Protocol was a MMO RPG? I’m not saying it might not flop, but is it comparable to these sorts of live service games?

Not really a fair comparison but Idk if it has what it takes to stand out in the sea of games, even in the same genre. And that's why I think the game was delayed and the studio decided to build more to offer on launch. IT NEEDS to leave a GREAT first impression, that's the sad state of affairs for newer games, especially F2P (which was decided BP would be after its announcement).

I myself will be playing it but won't lie that the longer it takes to release, the less I care about it when there are so many great games release or being announced.

 

[Fuz]

Shame, I always wanted to try it but never found the occasion.

 

[newtypepilot]

couldn't even last longer the One Year War, imagine that LOL

It is a mediocre Overwatch clone. While the gameplay is alright, it's the awful progression and unbalanced matchmaking that ultimately kill the game. You don't earn any in-game currency playing matches. You complete dailies and weeklies which progress the battle pass. And everything is tied to the stupid battle pass. If you go f2p, half of the daily and weekly quests are blocked out so there's really no point to grind games. Then there's the poor matchmaking that often results in lopsided games. You either stomp or get stomped.

I think the devs failed to understand that a PvP game needs a healthy player count to survive. Slow progression, bad monetization, and frustrating matchmaking means there's little incentive to keep playing. And they are slow to make any changes.

Contrast that to GBO2, which has a straightforward gacha system and no battle pass. It adds new content every week and is quite generous in giving freebies so there's a reason to keep playing.

 

[LordCBH]

I love seeing hero shooters shut down.