It seemed like for a while, it was all about G.I. Joe: Battleground. When the mobile game first launched, I was absolutely hooked, and played solidly for several months. After a while the brutal non-stop Events, the money it would eventually seem to require to stay on top of it wore me down, but I continued to follow the progress, if only to remain hooked on any new artwork that would emerge. To me, the art was always the selling point. Spectacular painted artwork of characters from the mainstream to the obscure were always the best parts of the game updates and the new events.
It’s a shame that appears to be going away.
Mobage posted an update to the G.I. Joe: Battleground game tonight essentially bidding farewell to the game and posting a very heartfelt “good bye”. It seems a shame, because any time less exposure is out there for G.I. Joe it’s a bad thing, but also because even though I no longer played, I still was very much paying attention to any new artwork that emerged.
What’s a little odd about this is the sense of regret that the announcement is written in. It almost seems as if this wasn’t their decision… could it be at all connected to Hasbro’s deal with Backflip Studios? Granted that deal was made public almost 18 months ago, but…
I’m sorry to see it go. Check out the images below and sound off… did you still play it? What did you think of the art?
Thanks to James Kavanaugh, Jr. over on the G.I. Joe Discussion Group for breaking the news.
Hm… yeah, I wonder if there’s something more than not getting enough money/players to support the license, keep creating content, and running the servers. It does seem like there’s more to the story. As for me, I played hardcore for many months, but eventually broke away from it; I was happy too as it was overtaking my time 🙂 But I’ll miss the artwork, the obscure characters/outfits, and the fact that there was a GI Joe video game out there.
I stopped playing long ago. It was no fun to me. Didn’t even feel like a game. Just a cash grab.
BUT – the art was pretty awesome and seeing all the different Joes and Cobras was great. I wish they would use all those cool characters in a much better game. I think “free” phone games are a lost cause anyway.
I had gotten back into it at the start of August, and was playing regularly since then. The writing seemed to be on the wall when October became “Flag Point month;” basically flag points found on missions would be 20 instead of 5, and there were flag point deals in the recruit options. There was no special event in October at all.
The biggest problem is the way it was presented. “October is a big sale! Stock up on great cards that you can use in the future!” They made it seem like October was just a break, a time for players to stock up and balance out, and prepare for the next “chapter”.
Except there IS no future, and no one in their right mind would’ve purchased cards for a game that was about to die. The was it was done was totally fraudulent, and horrible business.
It’s a shame. While I stopped playing Battlegrounds due to time and other games coming around it was a fun game while it lasted. But in all, it nearly lived on for two years which is impressive for a Freeimum game.
I had good memories of the game and will miss it, but I’ll admit it became a grind after awhile and just rather dull. I still want a G.I. Joe game to come around but in all honesty I don’t think Battleground was going to be the Joes big break into the video game market. A good start, at least.