It seems that Disney is showing its true Imperial allegiances as a pair of well-received "Star Wars" mobile games were thrown into the Sarlacc Pit, and neither players nor the developer of at least one of the games were given advance notice of this action.
Both "Tiny Death Star" and "Star Wars: Assault Team" were yanked from the iOS and Android app stores by Disney. Both of the titles are less than a year old; "Tiny Death Star" launched last November, while "Assault Team" hit the ground this past March.
"Assault Team" was developed by an internal Disney Mobile studio. "Tiny Death Star," on the other hand, was created by independent developer NimbleBit, best known for "Tiny Tower."
"The first clue we received was a tweet directed at us yesterday from a player asking why the game wasn't available on the App Store," Ian Marsh, co-founder of NimbleBit, told Game Informer via email.
As for whether it had gotten any indication that such a move could be coming, he said, "We never received any timeline but the layoffs which affected the 'Tiny Death Star' development team along with the rest of Disney Interactive did make us unsure about the game's future."
The game "seems to still be playable for now, but we have no idea how long that will remain the case, according to Marsh.
Just a four-person studio, NimbleBit was still making money from the game, and Marsh said the game's removal "will certainly be a hit to our business." But there's more on the company's mind than just the loss of money from the game: "More importantly this will likely tarnish the reputation we've built as a developer who values their players over revenue."
As for whether this would impact the company's likelihood to work with a company in a similar fashion in the future, Marsh said, "We're always open to ideas but historically things have worked out best just working on our own."
"Suffice to say if you're a developer looking to partner with Disney this might not be the partnership you're looking for," he concluded.
Disney declined to comment on the decision to remove the two games. It also wouldn't address how long they may remain fully playable (with in-app purchases enabled), or if anything will be done for players who have spent money on these games.
It seems the overall purpose of the removals is to focus on newer mobile Star Wars games, including the Clash of Clans-esque "Star Wars: Commander," and presumably the upcoming "Star Wars: Galactic Defense."
Somewhere, faintly off in the distance, I can hear Emperor Disn...I mean, Palpatine, cackling in his most wicked fashion.
