Capcom reminds us why “games-as-a-service” suck, announces end of Puzzle Fighter

Enlarge / RIP Puzzle Fighter, 2017-2018. (credit: Capcom)

The games-as-a-service graveyard grew one larger this week, as Capcom's Puzzle Fighter reboot received an official "sunset" announcement on Friday. The iOS and Android port of the '90s puzzle series will have its in-game store shut down on Monday, April 23, and its servers will follow suit on July 31-meaning the game will have been playable for only eight months after its late-November launch.

That's because the new, free-to-play Puzzle Fighter includes an always-online requirement so that players can be subjected to the timers and loot-box systems applied to both its single-player and multiplayer modes. Capcom's announcement did not in any way hint to a patch that would let the game work in a wholly offline mode, nor did it hint to any open-sourcing of its content so that dedicated players could, say, prop the game's bones up via DIY servers.

Friday's announcement also didn't reference the fact that this game's reboot recently received PEGI ratings (Europe's equivalent of the ESRB) for PC and consoles. And the language here doesn't give us much hope for a non-mobile port of the Columns-like, match-gems puzzle update. Instead, the post blames the mobile version's cancellation on Capcom Vancouver "dedicating its focus to our flagship Dead Rising franchise."

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