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Hagane Orchestra Smartphone Game Shuts Down in May

The official website for Hanbit Ubiquitous Entertainment's Hagane Orchestra (Steel Orchestra) smartphone game announced on Saturday that the game will shut down on May 31. The game can no longer be downloaded as of Saturday, and purchase of its in-game currency has been disabled. The game will offer refunds on June 1, and information on applying for refunds will be revealed at a later date.

The game allows players to customize a variety of armored fighting vehicles, and do battle with them.

Hanbit Ubiquitous Entertainment announced a television anime project at the same time as the smartphone game's announcement. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan, and it describes the story:

The people of this world live happily, despite its inhospitable landscapes. Kureha and the other members of the Defense Squad living in the Irodori Settlement spend their days here in meetings to figure out how to get more people to play "Hagane Orchestra," the smartphone game they appear in. They'll do anything to promote their game! The inside story about the game? Its inner workings? Anything goes... be it friendship, determination, betrayal, or despair.

A young man tells his story, along with the girls, his friends, and the Haganes. All work together as one, just like an orchestra...

The game debuted for iOS and Android devices in October 2016, and the anime by Fanworks premiered in the same month. Masahiko Ohta directed the anime series, and Takashi Aoshima wrote the scripts. Takashi Konno designed the characters for the project, and Takaharu Ōkuma adapted those character designs for animation, and also served as chief animation director.