Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Master X Master, MOBA, MXM, NCSOFT

NCSoft Announces The Imminent Closure Of MOBA Master X Master

Published Wed, 22 Nov 2017 12:20:31 -0600

NCSOFT announced the closure of their multiplayer online battle arena Master X Master which will take effect in January. The game released this summer, and despite having a rather interesting setup (you get to control two characters in a tag-team) and bringing in a ton of characters from NCSoft's other titles including the defunct City of Heroes, it didn't ever properly take off. The game's player base is rather dedicated, but small, as the market is flooded with MOBAs and MXM wasn't quite different enough to distinguish itself.

NCSOFT's announcement came by way of a press release and statement on the game's blog this morning, which you can find here.

"There is no easy way to say this, but regretfully, we will be discontinuing our service for MXM, with the final day of the game's life to be January 31," the statement reads. "Deciding to close the game is not a decision we come to lightly, but ultimately it came down to a matter of business—we explored several options, but none of them were sustainable. We truly believe that MXM is special, and offered a lot of new ideas to change up the MOBA genre, but in trying to carve out a niche for itself, we failed to connect with players."

However, despite the imminent closing, the development team will be staying on hand for a few months to keep the game going for players to keep enjoying. And there's even a bit of a farewell gift that should hit all players inboxes soon. The team's current plan for the future includes the following:

All players will receive 500,000 X-Coin to unlock all content
The community-developed Lua skin will be made available to all players for 1 X-Coin
Real money purchases on the MXM Store will be permanently disabled
All game modes will be turned on, and available at all times
Refunds in full on purchases made between Aug. 30 and Nov. 16. This will happen automatically within the next 7-14 days, and will be refunded via the same method the purchase was made, if possible. For additional refund specifics please refer to our FAQ.

"We are truly grateful for the community that grew around MXM, and for your support of the game. We saw MXM as a challenge to the status quo—a change-up of mechanics that would revitalize the MOBA genre and attract players who wanted to test the upper limits of their skills—but in the end, it wasn't enough to take on the established juggernauts. It truly is awe-inspiring to have been a part of the community's creativity and passion—the art, videos, and guides, the emergent gameplay and meta as new Masters were introduced, the high-level online competitions, and more—truly, thank you."

The team will be continuing to provide updates on the official forums, Twitter, and Facebook until January 31.

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