Loyal Fans Lament As Chromehounds Winds Down Online Service

Just over three years ago, Sega published the Xbox 360-exclusive mech game Chromehounds, developed by the Japanese video game mech gurus at From Software. The game had offline modes, but its online modes were able to foster a small yet loyal group of fans over the years. Now fans are grieving on Sega message boards as the company quietly announced on August 7 that it will be closing Chromehounds' online service on January 6, 2010. "At this time, all online components for Chromehounds will no longer be accessible and the game will only be available for play in Offline modes," said an official forum administrator. The message board announcement coincided with the Japanese announcement that Chromehounds' online service would shut down, the administrator said. Some fans and current users of the game responded with disappointment. One player said, "...This is some straight up BS. I've been playing this for three years, 2500-plus hours. I don't think it's right that they shut us down like that -- at least charge us to play this game. I would gladly pay money to play Chromehounds." A separate poster added, "I've put a lot of work into my squad, and as soon as I finish, I read [the administrator's] post on the closure of the servers. It makes no sense..." Yet there were more posters who were less forgiving. As one user put it: "Sega you are a sick cruel monster. One day, you shall pay." From Software is also the developer of the long-lasting mech series, Armored Core. Chromehounds began as a relatively popular online game, but users have said buggy online play hampered the game initially before developers smoothed out some of the kinks.