Square Enix Halfway Abandons Foamstars After Final 'Party Goes On!" Season - Leaves Game Live Despite Ceasing Development

[Cpt.Jank]

Square Enix just announced the final season of Foamstars, the colorful, unique 4v4 PvP party shooter for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. After the new season, which will run from December 13, 2024, to January 17, 2025, Square Enix will stop providing seasonal updates to Foamstars, effectively marking the end of the game's live service. It won't be the end of Foamstars entirely, though, since the game and its servers will remain live after the final season ends—with all previous seasons' content available, to boot. Still, without additional content coming, the future of Foamstars is uncertain, and many are already asking how long the game will remain interesting to players, especially in a genre that has so many alternatives.

In order to stem the inevitable player exodus and attract new players, despite the effective discontinuation of development, Square Enix is planning a series of in-game events it calls the Foamstars Cup. Along with the new season, Square Enix will also introduce customizable character shots and a handful of other enhancements. Foamstars went free-to-play earlier this year, shortly after its launch, likely as a move to attract new players, but the effective abandonment of the game by Square Enix is something of an indication that even this wasn't enough to justify further development of the game beyond what Square Enix is promising after this final season.



So far, 2024 seems to be the year of large studios shutting down games they deem not profitable enough, while indie studios that stuck with their games celebrate their success, as demonstrated late last month by No Man's Sky, which crossed the "Very Positive" mark in Steam's reviews. The way Square Enix is handling —Foamstars is starkly different to games like The Crew and

Please see below for details on the main changes to the content of FOAMSTARS beyond January 17, 2025 (Friday), 01:00 UTC. *Some content subject to future adjustments.

• Season Pass
  
  Players can select any season pass they wish to advance from past seasons' passes and they are free to switch to other season passes at any time.
  
  As with past seasons, the basic Season Pass is free and the Premium Pass is paid. In addition, you can now also purchase specific Tiers within a Season Pass from the "Season Pass" screen to unlock the corresponding rewards along that track.
  
  Party Popper: Bubbles, which was available through Premium Passes in past seasons, will become an item available through the standard Season Pass, following the end of sales of various Party Poppers.
  
• EXTREME PARTY
  
  EXTREME PARTIES will take place every Saturday 03:00-14:59 (UTC) in the following cycle. The status of whether an EXTREME PARTY is "upcoming" or "currently ongoing" will be announced in-game.
  
  • Skill Shuffle Party!(Rotation)
  • Skill Shuffle Party!
  • Overlap-OK Party!
  • *"Super Duel Party!" "Pitchside Homerun Party!" "One-Shot Chill Party!" and "Invisible Party!" will be held in rotation.
    
  
  
• RANKED PARTY
  "RANKED PARTY TRIBE-VIBE" and "RANKED PARTY LONESTAR" will be renewed as "FOAMSTARS CUP".
  
  RANKED PARTY TRIBE-VIBE" will become "FOAMSTARS CUP FREEDOM LEAGUE" and "RANKED PARTY LONESTAR" will become "FOAMSTARS CUP LEGEND LEAGUE". Each FOAMSTARS CUP is named after a specific Foamstar and will rotate every four weeks.
  
  Rewards include icons and other items based on each FOAMSTAR, so please join in!
  
  In addition, based on the player feedback we have received, both events will continue to take place on a daily basis. The "FOAMSTARS CUP FREEDOM LEAGUE" will be in a format that allows for easy group participation with friends at any time, whereas the "FOAMSTARS CUP LEGEND LEAGUE" is designed to allow players who are recognized for their abilities to enjoy more competitive matches with each other.
  
  
• Shop
  Items in the "Recommended" category will be updated on a daily basis.
  
• Challenges
  The current "Limited Time" challenges will change to "Event" challenges and be further divided into the following categories:
  
  Daily Challenge (updated daily)
  Event Challenge (updated every Saturday)
  "Weekly" challenges will continue to accumulate one week at a time from the start of a challenge, but they will now be switching out every four weeks instead of every five weeks (one season).
  
  In addition, the "CASUAL PARTY" and "PRIVATE PARTY" in VERSUS mode, which are not listed above, as well as the MISSION mode, will continue to be available for your enjoyment.
  

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[Durvelle27]

PlayStations version of Splatoon

 

[TechLurker]

I liked the character designs and the playstyle, but there's still plenty of issues that make it tough to recommend even as a party game. For one, the fancy effects for doing basically anything can get so oppressive you can't even see where your foam lines are, and reloading is extremely awful, when compared to Splatoons.

If they actually bothered to optimize and refine the game to run more smoothly and consistently like Splatoons, it would be a workable sidegame to enjoy on downtime with friends and family. But it's a visual clusterf- that makes it tough to play at times.