By Ian Melton

Cut down before it even reached two years, word went out that the mobile game X-Men: Battle Of The Atom will close down on November 30th. Released on January 16th, 2014 the game, according to Google Play, is a card-battle game where you "fight your way through single-player missions as Wolverine, Storm, Iceman, and other all-time X-Men favorites. Recruit hundreds of characters spanning 50 Years of X-Men history, assemble the ultimate team, and experience the greatest storylines from the comics – past and present – in epic multiplayer 20-vs.-20 real-time battles!" The only regularly updated game dedicated just to the X-Men franchise, Battle of the Atom included X-Men characters and also characters, like Bartoc, who have appeared in storylines from the entire X-Men story history. The game, in addition to single player missions, has team versus matches every 4 hours and cards depicting art from the whole of the X-Men's over 50 years.

The news was announced by developers PlayNext on the game's news feed with a letter as follows:

"Dear Players, After much deliberation, we regret to announce the shutdown of X-Men Battle of the Atom. We will not accept any new purchase after September 30 and we will officially close the service on November 30. Until November 30, all regularly scheduled XVX battles will continue with double Time Diamond reward. In addition, we will a series of events that will allow you to collect all the Phoenix Vessel cards. The project has been a labor of love, and we couldn't have done it without you, the player. On behalf of the entire development team, we want to sincerely thank you all ofr your continued feedback, support, and community over the past 20 months. Sincerely, Team X-Men: Battle of the Atom"

The X-Men: Battle of the Atom message boards are now full of players hoping to save the game and understand why it is being closed down. However, no word beyond the letter above has been given for the shutdown from the developers or PlayNext.

Possible lack of revenue from players not buying the games currency "X-Coins" and "Time Diamonds" to make the game profitable have been suggested, as well as the possibility that Marvel isn't looking to extend an X-Men license with another Fox movie on the horizon. No update has been made on the game's Facebook page to provide more details, and actually no update has been done on the page since July 10th.

The shutdown of this game will drop Marvel's Merry Mutants participation in mobile/online games from two down to one, as they are now only featured in Marvel's Contest Of Champions.