SEGA and Demiurge’s SEGA Heroes mobile game is one of the few titles I pop in everyday to collect all my rewards so I could fill out my SEGA roster. Its not ground breaking but the diversity of SEGA IPs really got me into it. Sadly, I will have to say goodbye to this mobile title as Demiurge studio has now become independent from SEGA. SEGA had previously worked with Demiurge on the Aliens: Colonial Marines DLC Bughunt, the same year they made their smash mobile title ‘Marvel Puzzle Quest‘ in 2013. After that, SEGA stepped in to purchase the studio.
Demiurge and SEGA’s games weren’t all hits either, the first title that the studio brought out to mobile was Puzzle & Glory in 2015, which got a soft launch in Canada and then a year later they closed the game down. Then in 2017 came the mobile title known as Crazy Taxi Gazillionaire that was then changed into Crazy Taxi Tycoon which was a top-down endless business management simulator and idle clicker game.
Now the last game they did was SEGA Heroes. But why has Demiurge studios bought the studio back from SEGA and want to go independent? According to this interview with the studios co-founder, they want to get out of the mobile market and work on supporting AAA studios like they did before they made Marvel Puzzle Quest. If you look at their history of games they worked on (which dates back to 2004), they worked on console games.
SEGA has also made a notice about the game closing, you can read that here.
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I jumped into SEGA Heroes right away, and if anyone didn’t, it was really hard to catch up on characters without spending a metric ton of money. I finished the “single player” but the grind was too much (I do not spend money in F2P, online-only or mobile games in general) so I uninstalled SEGA Heroes last year already.
I’ve also played Marvel Puzzle Quest since near its beginning, and have done their VIP services for a couple months when I have Play credit to use, and I enjoy Puzzle Quest immensely more. I hope that game doesn’t get shuttered either. Recently, they revamped how characters can be earned, and it was received with mixed results. The in-game currencies are mostly level with how each is earned, but it is disproportionately towards ISO and the coins and star-things costs are pricey to use on characters. Players have also been complaining about the quality of characters over the past year. I never collected all the characters, always being very careful of what I roster, and have rostered very few lately myself.
To go back to SEGA Heroes, for me, the biggest issue the gameplay has is that, compared directly to Puzzle Quest, the board is too small. It’s wider than it is tall, so it’s much harder to get combos and chains going. Even with characters that can augment the board, most moves were one match and turn over. It’s not as fun.
The co-founder’s statement about going back to support AAA games leads me to believe the Marvel Puzzle Quest, as successful as it is, might be on its last legs too.
“Going forward, Demiurge will continue running Marvel Puzzle Quest and Sega Heroes.” [quote from the interview]
I’m a bit confused… on the one hand, SEGA Heroes will be continued by Demiurge as stated by the co-founder. On the other hand, the game’s servers will be shut down as stated by SEGA (and because Internet connection is obligatory to that game, you wouldn’t be able to play it anymore).
Which one is true?
Considering the interview is older, I will say SEGA.
Probably what they meant is It will still be continued … until May 21st.
That’s terrible.
I love SEGA Heroes.
I’m still kinda mad.
With this announcement,
Demiurge is no longer my favorite developer.
After May 21st, I’d uninstall Marvel Puzzle Quest too.
One of the very few mobile games I was compelled to spend money on. R.I.P from July 29, 2018 to May 21, 2020.
SEGA Heroes was trash game in my opinion .
Overpriced offers , awfully unbalanced characters , pure pay to win , game is super repetitive and boring .