Transformers Heavy Metal, the location-based AR game using Transformers characters has announced its shutdown, just 4 months after its soft launch.

In a tweet, it was announced Transformers Heavy Metal would end its service on August 31st, 2022.

“We grew up with the Transformers on TV, in the movies, and playing with them in our backyards. As such, part of our vision for TRANSFORMERS: Heavy Metal was to bring them to life right in our own neighborhoods!”, the developers said in a blog post. “Bigger than anything we had ever seen, but in our attempts, there were many challenges. We’re incredibly proud of the game we’ve made and for the huge support that fans around the world gave us”.

In addition to the pending shutdown, they announced that the beta for Transformers Heavy Metal in regions where it had not fully launched would also be taken down, and that the cash shop for the game would be disabled.

Owning any virtual currency doesn’t seem to warrant a refund, since the developers are suggesting players spend all of theirs before the game’s closure.

Transformers Heavy Metal was a Pokemon Go-styled game, letting players collect their favorite Transformers characters and battle them.

While it shared mechanical similarities to Pokemon Go, it didn’t so much share the numbers- Appmagic reports the game had just under 35,000 downloads in its lifetime, with less than USD1000 in lifetime earnings.

This is partially due to its limited release- the game never got a proper global release, instead only launching in select countries, of which Malaysia was one of them.

Transformers Heavy Metal

Publisher: Niantic

Developer: Niantic

Release Date: 2022-04-01

Android, iOS

At the brink of a looming Decepticon invasion on Earth, Bumblebee and Hound launch the Guardian Program, a network of human allies working with the Autobots to keep the planet safe. With Starscream hot on their trail, Bumblebee brings you into the program. As Guardian, you must scan for threats and supplies, take control of Decepticon-occupied regions, and amplify the Autobots' signal to Cybertron.