Tiny Death Star's creator is not having a good day.
A cursory look at the iOS App Store and Google Play reveals that Disney has fired its Mickey-Mouse-shaped Death Star at two relatively short-lived Star Wars games: Tiny Death Star and Star Wars Assault Team. The latter was a basic albeit solid card battler, but the former was an adorable Star Wars reskin of developer Nimblebit's insidiously/Darth Sidiously addictive Tiny Tower. It still had a lot of Tiny Tower's annoying issues, but it was pretty well-received.
Flash forward to today. Speaking with PocketGamer, Nimblebit's Ian Marsh said he wasn't even told about Disney's decision to pull the plug before it happened. "My assumption is they don't feel it is worth it to maintain the game any longer," he added.
On top of that, it was apparently "a significant source of revenue for us, so it stings that much more."
According to PocketGamer, a source close to the situation claimed that Disney canned the two fun-sized Star Wars games to focus on other, potentially bigger ones like mobile tower defense game Star Wars: Commander.
All in all, it's rough. I understand needing to reallocate resources (yes, even when you're a company of Disney's "that's no moon!"-level size), but treating developers poorly is a) classless and b) a crappy way to run a business. Fans still playing these games get the short end of the glowy, soowshy light stick too, given that their communities can't really add new members anymore. So it's a shame all around. Here's hoping Disney doesn't make a habit out of this kind of thing.
Update: Nimblebit's Ian Marsh told me that, in the short term, his company is going to be OK. He wouldn't offer specific numbers on how much money they're losing but said it's not a doomsday scenario. "Luckily we've stayed nimble enough that it shouldn't have an immediate impact on the company," he explained. However, he added that Tiny Death Star does still have an "active" community, and this is obviously a pretty big blow to that.
Still waiting to hear back from Disney.