Picture: Yacht Club Games / Choice Provisions / Riot Forge
The exodus of games continues at Netflix Games, with the mobile game Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon set to depart the lineup tomorrow, December 18th, alongside Hextech Mayhem, the game set in the same world as League of Legends.
Beginning with Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon, the game is described as a roguelike puzzle game that puts you in control of a blue knight tasked with battling foes, collecting relics, and matching blocks to save friends and escape in this genre-bending spinoff. It first landed on Netflix on June 6th, 2023.
Yacht Club Games announced the removal of the game on social media this afternoon:
“Hey Pocketeers, we wanted to let you know that the mobile version of Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon will be departing from Netflix on December 18th. While we’re sad to say goodbye, we deeply appreciate everyone who has played & enjoyed the game during its time on the platform.
Please note that this announcement does not affect any of the other platforms. You still can delve into the Pocket Dungeon on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Steam. Thank you for your on-going support!”
Shortly after this statement, a removal notice appeared in the Netflix user interface stating that today, December 17th, is your last day to play. Once the game goes offline, you must manually remove it from your phone, as Google Play and Apple don’t do this for you.
Yacht Club Games was asked if there are plans for the game after its Netflix removal, to which they replied, “We’re currently figuring out what the next steps are! We’ll be sure to announce what our plans are once things are ironed out.”
Pictures: Netflix removal notices for Shovel Knight and Hextech Mayhem
The second game also due an imminent removal is Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story, which comes from Riot Games. It first touched down on Netflix in January 2022 and is a fast-paced rhythm runner featuring League of Legends stars Ziggs and Heimerdinger. That game, too, is set to depart on December 18th, but we’ve yet to find any official statement from the development team about its removal.
As we’ve been covering (depressingly a lot lately), Netflix is going through its first wave of significant removals since it first launched mobile games at the end of 2021. It began with the news that two Grand Theft Auto games were leaving, plus Dominoes Cafe. Then we learned that Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales was being shut down entirely and removed, and this morning, we heard that The Dragon Prince: Xadia would also be closing down. In most of the games that have left, we got some early warning, although, in the case of Shovel Knight and Xadia, their closures have come as a bit more of a surprise.
Thankfully, Netflix’s lineup of games remains at over 100 titles, with Squid Game: Unleashed being the biggest of the most recent arrivals.
Are you disappointed that Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon and Hextech Mayhem are leaving Netflix Games? Let us know in the comments.
