Tales of Luminaria will shut down in July, less than one year into its lifespan

Another Tales gacha game bites the dust

Bandai Namco has announced the sudden closure of Tales of Luminaria, the mobile RPG set within the expansive Tales universe. Tales of Luminaria will see one more update at the end of this month, before its servers shut down worldwide on July 19, 2022.

“We regret to announce that the service for Tales of Luminaria will be sunset on July 19, 2022 PDT,” reads a statement on the game’s website. “As the first completely original mobile title in the “Tales of” series, our sincere intent was to make this game fun and, by taking on various challenges, to bring “Tales of” to a wider audience around the world, not only Japan.”

“Additionally, we have tried our best to make this service playable over a long time, encouraged by the supportive comments and feedback we have received on SNS. However, we could not do enough, and we sincerely apologize to all those who have supported and played Tales of Luminaria.”

The news comes as an “inevitable surprise” — if you will. Tales of Luminaria is a mere seven months old, having been launched in November 2021, and as such is still very young in its lifespan. However, Luminaria is one of a series of Tales-themed gacha titles to hit the skids in less than five years. Luminaria is preceded by Tales of Crestoria, which launched in 2020 and closed in February of this year.

While one remaining story update has been scheduled for the Version 1.6 update in May, the developer has fully clarified that the story of Tales of Luminaria will not be completed, leaving multiple character threads dangling and stories untold once the servers shut down. This is obviously a frustrating situation for developers and players, and given the recent trend for slamming the brakes on gacha titles, one would be wise to avoid becoming invested in any future releases.

Chris Moyse

Senior Editor – Chris has been playing video games since the 1980s. Former Saturday Night Slam Master. Graduated from Galaxy High with honors. Twitter: @ChrisxMoyse