The upcoming season of Foamstars, Square Enix’s 4v4 online party shooter, will be its last, the publisher announced Thursday. The Splatoon-inspired action game will be updated with a new season of content on December 13. The upcoming season, dubbed “The Party Goes On”, will be live till January 17, 2025, before marking the end of seasonal updates for the game, Square Enix said. The studio, however, confirmed Foamstars would stay online and accessible for players.
Foamstars to Get Final Season
In a season update notice posted on its website Thursday, Square Enix thanked Foamstars players and confirmed season updates would halt for the game next month. “Following the “PARTY GOES ON!” season taking place from 13 December 2024 (Friday) to 17 January 2025 (Friday), season updates for FOAMSTARS will be coming to an end,” the company said.
While Foamstars will stop receiving season updates, the game will stay online for players. “All online services will remain available after the “PARTY GOES ON!” season ends. In addition, we plan to hold the FOAMSTARS CUP, a series of in-game events named after each character,” Square Enix said.
Foamstars’ previous season passes will also be made available again, the publisher confirmed. “Players can switch between Season Passes at any time to proceed along the Season Pass track of your choice and obtain items from past seasons. This will make it possible for players to obtain all the items from each season,” Square Enix said.
The upcoming final season update will bring gameplay enhancements like the ability to customise shots of each character. The update will also add new enhancement elements like Prism Gems. Square Enix said the final season would bring improvements aimed at ensuring the game remains enjoyable for the foreseeable future.
Square Enix launched Foamstars as a PlayStation exclusive in February, making the game available as a PlayStation Plus launch title on PS4 and PS5. The company had promised free themed seasonal updates, including cosmetics, playable characters, maps, and additional modes, over the span of one year.
Live Service Woes
The live service title, however, fell short of Square Enix’s sales target, the Japanese company said in its quarterly earnings report in May. The publisher’s recent PlayStation exclusives, which include Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI and Foamstars, failed to live up to revenue and profit expectations, forcing it to revise its estimates for 2024 and shift to a multi-platform release strategy.
Square Enix’s decision to halt updates for Foamstars marks yet another stumble for live service titles in 2024. Concord, Sony’s big-budget live service hero shooter, struggled to attract players on PS5 and PC, before it was taken offline two weeks after it launched in August. The PlayStation parent later shut down Concord developer Firewalk Studios and permanently sunsetted the game.
Earlier this week, Ubisoft announced it would discontinue its free-to-play live service shooter XDefiant and shut down the game’s servers in June 2025. The publisher also confirmed it was shutting down its San Francisco and Osaka studios and ramping down its Sydney production site, with 277 jobs set to be impacted.