RIP

It's a sad day indeed. Bandai Namco has announced that Pokkén Tournament, the seminal Pokémon fighting game, will cease arcade online operations on March 25. Yes this was an online-capable arcade machine with "tutorial service" and "national versus mode" capabilities, which will be shut down on that date in addition to Banapassport card support.

To ago along with the closure the management team posted a message on their website, stating: "Last but not least, I would like to express my heartfelt thank you to the players who deeply loved this work, to the store staff who cooperated with the management, and to everyone who thanked you for your support."

Pokkén Tournament first debuted in arcades all the way back in mid-2015 in Japan, so it's been around for quite a while. It'll still live on in many locations, as well as the Wii U and Switch ports. I had the good fortune of being able to play the arcade edition in Japan and it was a blast. I hope they're still around when I return.

Notice of Termination of Online Service [Pokken via Siliconera]