Neople and Nexon announced recently that following on the closure of the Japanese version of Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex – First Assault in November, the American, European, and Oceanic versions will also be shut down as well, starting December 6th, 2017.

The news was posted up over on the official Nexon forums, where one of the forum administrators delivered the news through a rather somber post, writing…

“We’re sorry to inform you that we will be sunsetting Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex First Assault Online in North and South America, Europe, and the Oceania region, with final closure scheduled for December 6.

 

“This was a very tough decision to make. The game has been in development for a long time, supported by developer, publisher, and community effort. Ultimately, we decided that continued development wasn’t going to help the game become what we all hoped it could become.”

The post goes on to say that they will be shutting down the cash shop soon, and development will be brought to a halt.

The game managed to reach more than 1.7 million users on Steam, according to Steam Spy. Over the course of the last two weeks they’ve also been able to maintain over 30,000 players.

This hasn’t been a good year for the Ghost in the Shell property at all. Earlier in the year there was the live-action film starring Scarlett Johansson, but it didn’t go over so well at the box office. Ahead of its release there was some notable controversy over the casting decision: some argued that the movie should have starred an Asian actress. Others argued no Asian actress had the box office appeal that Johansson does. Except… even with Johansson in the lead role she still couldn’t attract a sizable box office to the film, so casting didn’t matter in the end.

Ghost in the Shell: First Assault was probably done no favors with the bombing out of the movie, and with the most recent changes to the game that completely toppled the balance, weapon affinity, classes, and playability, a lot of gamers gave up on the free-to-play title and completely abandoned it. The reviews over on the Steam page reflect a massive negative reaction to the changes, and instead of attempting to fix them in order to improve the playability, and attract the old gamers back, Nexon seems to be in a position where they’re just going to cut their losses and call it a day.

So if you had any inclination to play Ghost in the Shell: First Assault, it might be wise to do it now before it fades away, forever into the digital ether.

(Thanks for the news tip Cassidy)