Super Evil Megacorp said that it will cease its support for its very own mobile MOBA Vainglory. The move comes as a surprise, as many were expecting the developer to provide even more support. Vainglory initially was a 3v3 game, before it was upgraded to 5v5.
Vainglory was released to iOS in 2014 and the Android a year later. By 2018, the game was made available to both Windows and Mac. With cross-platform play, players are able to play together at the same time on all four platforms.
In a blog post, Ciarnan “Excoundrel” Lowe of SEMC said that the company believes that regular communication is key, and that it was "time to address some of the topics that often pop up on various social media platforms in the hopes that we can create an honest and open dialogue with you, our community."
Excoundrel said that when it came to Vainglory, the goal has been to come up with an immersive and deep experience for mobile gaming. It was no surprise that a competitive esports community would rise considering the nature and depth of the game. What started as an attempt to develop tools for its esports players eventually became "a full-scale esports production ran by our entire team at the lair."
SEMC had the passion to develop an esports program, but it became clear later on that all the planning, resourcing, and running the various esports events resulted in taking resources away from the development team and development of the game itself. While they were indeed passionate about esports, SEMC believed that the sacrifices needed were no longer worth it. Excoundrel said that SEMC's "hanging strategy has meant we have had to take a more supportive role in esports, allowing our partners and community (we see you EPL!) to take the leading role when it comes to organisation." SEMC assured the community that they are willing to continue supporting esports initiatives, but will always prioritize the development of the game first.
SEMC provided an update as well on the API. The API for Vainglory highlighted how the game's "data could be visualized in practical, fun and informative ways." Still, the API was designed from the beginning to be maintained externally. In this case, the API was developed and managed by MADGLORY. However the development team in-charge of the API was acquired back in 2018, resulting in the support for the API shifting to the internal team. As of this time, SEMC has decided to put a pause on the API.
