PlatinumGames the famous studio behind Bayonetta, NieR: Automata and The Wonderful 101is pulling the plug on its popular action-puzzler World of Demons. The game will disappear from Apple Arcade on January 18, becoming unavailable on that date and becoming unplayable soon after on February 1.
The news was made public via a perfunctory blog post which reads “World of Demons will no longer be available to download on Apple Arcade as of January 18, 2024. Please see the schedule below for more details. We extend our gratitude to all players who have enjoyed the game since release.”
The game – Platinum’s first move into mobile – has had a tortuous route to market having originally been released as a free to play game by publisher DeNA in 2018. Inspired by the look of Clover Studio’s console hit Okami it was initially released as a free-to-play game and soft launched on iOS in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia in that year.
The game received no updates throughout its stay in soft launch and was removed in September 2018. It was rumoured that – given that some of Platinum’s founders had previously been a Clover Studios and worked on Okami – the game’s brisk removal may be the result of some behind-the-scenes wrangling.
Back from the dead – but not for long
However, World of Demons successfully came back from the dead, being 100% rewritten for iOS and becoming an Apple Arcade exclusive to fan acclaim in April 2021
Speaking to IGN in 2021, Platinum studio head Atsushi Inaba explained that “We had the opportunity to release the game for Apple Arcade, and instead of just making a few small adjustments for the new platform, we decided to take this opportunity to rebuild the game from the ground up.”
Now, after years of work and no other route to market the game will effectively cease to exist come February 1.
