Not everything Niantic touches turns to gold — or becomes an instant hit. Case in point, Catan: World Explorers has been kind of a dud ever since coming to early access in 2020. While the board game is a legitimate hit, the thought of running all over the real world to pick up sheep and wood resources didn’t really prove to have the same appeal.
Because of the lackluster reception, Niantic announced that it’s pulling the plug on World Explorers without giving the mobile title a chance to launch. The closure isn’t immediate; Niantic is “winding things down” with some final events and bonuses before all goes dark on November 18th. World Explorers has been pulled from both iOS and Android’s mobile app stores, however.
“Trying to adapt such a well-designed board game to a global, location-based Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game was a tough challenge,” Niantic said. “We’re so proud of the game we made, however we got a little too complicated and a little too far from the original Catan game.”
