NCSoft lays plans to close its short-lived MOBA MXM

The folks behind NCSoft's free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game Master X Master announced today that they're preparing to shut the game down for good on January 31st of next year.

The game was reportedly the first MOBA developed internally by NCSoft, and while it's been in some form of development and alpha/beta testing for years, it didn't officially launch until this summer (June 21st, to be specific).

To prepare for the shutdown, the dev team is taking a number of measures: the ability to buy things with real money on the MXM storefront is being permanently disabled, all purchases made between August 30th and today will be automatically refunded over the next two weeks, all game modes will be switched on and made available at all times, and all players will receive half a million "X-Coin" (the in-game currency) to "unlock all content", including a special community-developed character skin.

"Deciding to close the game is not a decision we come to lightly, but ultimately it came down to a matter of business—we explored several options, but none of them were sustainable," reads an excerpt of the announcement. "For the remainder of the game’s service, we’re going to do everything we can to honor the community and show thanks for your support."