MMORPG Gran Saga to Shut Down Four Months After Global Launch

In a bid to attract Genshin Impact fans, the fate of the MMORPG Gran Saga was sealed this week. NPIXEL announced that the game will be shut down globally on April 30, 2025, only four months after its worldwide release in November 2024.

The premature end of another big project

Lately, the mobile giants have been burning money in an attempt to create a “new Genshin Impact”. The attempt, almost always, starts wrong, as companies aim at a different genre than Hoyoverse’s game, the MMORPG.

Gran Saga was designed to have a gigantic open world, graphics inspired by Final Fantasy, epic bosses and a cinematic narrative. With a soundtrack from renowned composer Yoko Shimomura, known for her work on Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV, Gran Saga had everything to be a success among JRPG and anime fans.

In reality, the game never managed to achieve the expected success (not even in Korea) and the dismal performance in the west only confirmed that the project would be financially unsustainable.

I know many people are upset about this, but the truth is that games like this require many servers and this has a very high cost.

Servers will be shut down in April, but Asian version will continue

The announcement was made on X (formerly Twitter), stating that in-game purchases and new downloads will be disabled starting today, March 6, 2025. However, players who already have the game installed can continue playing until the servers close at the end of April.

[ Gran Saga Service Termination and Maintenance Notice ]

Hello Captains,
Today with heavy hearts we must share some difficult news.

After much deliberation, a decision has been made to terminate Gran Saga Global service on April 30th, as a result of difficulties in providing a…

— Gran Saga Global (@GRANSAGA_GLOBAL) March 5, 2025

It should be noted that only the global version will be shut down. Gran Saga will still remain available in Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, where the game has a more consolidated player base.

Refunds for in-game purchases

For players who invested money in the game, NPIXEL is offering refunds for purchased items, but with some limitations. Only consumable items will be refunded.

Refund requests can be submitted for review until May 30, 2025.

Why did Gran Saga fail?

The untimely closure raises an inevitable question: what went wrong?

In forums and social networks, the community points to three main factors for Gran Saga’s failure:

• Poor marketing: The game had little global promotion, making it difficult to attract new players.
• Unadjusted regional price: Many players complained that the prices of packages and microtransactions were too high, especially in some regions.
• Auto-play mechanics: Despite impressive graphics, the automated gameplay turned off many players, who expected a more engaging MMORPG.

The lack of an own identity could also have been a factor. While Genshin Impact solidified its gameplay style and engaging narrative, Gran Saga wasn’t able to create a strong enough differential to conquer a loyal base in the West.

NPIXEL’s attempt to compete in the open-world MMORPGs market ended up being a huge global failure. Although visually impressive, problems with marketing, pricing, and auto-play mechanics pushed players away, leading to a closure just four months after launch.

For those who still want to try Gran Saga, the alternative is to play the version available in Japan, South Korea, or Southeast Asia, where the servers will remain active.