In an almost surprising turn of events, the RTS spin-off Gears POP! will be shutting down after only two years on the market.
Announced online, Gears POP!’s final day was April 26. From then on, developers Mediatonic will not be producing any additional content for the game, and will no longer maintain the servers. The ability to purchase various microtransactions are no longer available, and any that took place after July 30, 2020, have been refunded.
This was first announced in October on the Gears POP! Website. There, they explained why they came to this decision.
“There are a number of things that go into maintaining a game beyond keeping servers active. Addressing issues, developing content, and providing support are critical in keeping a game running. Unfortunately, this is no longer feasible.”
For those that may have missed it, Gears POP! was a somewhat controversial spin-off game released in 2019. Based on the popular third-person shooter series, Gears of War, this game transformed it into a real time strategy game for mobile devices. To bring it a step further, the character models were all based on Funko Pop figurines.
We understand the conflict of interest here. The Gears of War games are full of head on action and brutal engagements. You play hard and stubborn. This kind of strategy seldom, if ever, works in an RTS format. And when you replace that grit with these large headed, cutesy doll things, the core audience is going to feel alienated.
Gears POP! tried, and we can respect that. But not everything can be a hit. We don’t blame them for cutting this loss now.
