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Square Enix Montreal is no longer making Go games

Square Enix Montreal is no longer making Go games

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The company is shifting to free-to-play games

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Lara Croft Go

If you’ve been hoping for a new clever mobile Go game from Square Enix Montreal, you’re out of luck. In an interview with PocketGamer, the studio behind Hitman Go and Lara Croft Go says that it is no longer producing the premium mobile games in the series, focusing instead on free-to-play games.

Square Enix Montreal studio head Patrick Naud confirmed that the studio is not working on any new Go games, saying that “one of the challenges we have today is the premium mobile market is diminishing.” He pointed specifically to their prices (the Go games are each $4.99), saying that it’s “such a big barrier for mobile users.”

Square Enix Montreal was founded in 2011 as a traditional studio, but pivoted to mobile games, taking popular franchises such as Hitman, Deus Ex, and Lara Croft, and turning them into board game-inspired mobile games. Hitman Go proved to be a surprising hit, and the studio followed up with Lara Croft Go in 2015, and Deus Ex Go in 2016. Last year, it changed things up with Hitman: Sniper. The Go games were beautiful, fun, turn-based puzzles that stripped the franchises down to their essences, perfect for smaller screens.

Despite the declaration that they’re no longer making the Go series, Naud says that the studio will still focus on mobile games, telling VentureBeat that it’s making more money from in-app purchases and they’re shifting away from premium games, “taking the freemium approach in all of our next games.”