Tribe Nine will officially end its service on November 27, 2025. Read on to learn more about the reasons behind the shutdown and how the original team and fans are preserving the game’s story.
Tribe Nine Ends Service
Servers Now Offline Barely A Year After Release
Tribe Nine, the action RPG/gacha title based on Akatsuki’s mixed-media franchise, officially ended service today, November 27, 2025. This follows the announcement back in mid-May, when the studio confirmed that development had stopped and in-game purchases were already disabled. The game launched with solid interest thanks to its anime connection, cyberpunk, tribe-based setting, and being helmed by Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka, but today marks its final shutdown across all platforms.
According to the developer, the main issue was a sharp drop in revenue after Chapter 3. Both item sales and overall player activity fell below expectations, making it hard to keep the game running. As things continued to trend downward, the team was eventually dissolved. Before closing the servers, Akatsuki released the rest of the main story—up to Chapter 5—as a final send-off for players.
Player response to early monetization changes may have played a role, too. During the beta, players could earn gacha currency pretty easily through regular gameplay, which set expectations for how rewards would look at launch. When the full release tightened those earnings, many players were disappointed. The studio later increased drop rates and refunded spent currency, but the initial frustration lingered, a large chunk of the playerbase had already left, and activity never bounced back.
In the end, a mix of declining revenue, early player dissatisfaction, and broader financial pressure made it difficult for the studio to continue supporting the game.
Where Tribe Nine Goes from Here
Even though the servers are offline, Tribe Nine’s story isn’t disappearing entirely. Fans on Reddit and Twitter (X) have been preserving what they can — screenshots, story clips, character logs, and other in-game materials — so the narrative stays accessible. Some players have also archived deleted interviews and official posts through the Wayback Machine. While not everything can be saved, these efforts ensure that much of the game’s world remains available to the community.
Meanwhile, the original creative team behind Tribe Nine — Kazutaka Kodaka, Yamaguchi Shuhei (producer/director), and Katsunori Suginaka (writer) — is continuing the story through non-profit doujin activities under a new circle called Neo Neon Tribe. As Kodaka told Automaton, they didn’t want Tribe Nine to be remembered as "that game that shut down after three months," so the team is working for free to give the story a proper conclusion. Yamaguchi added that much of the game’s planned storylines hadn’t been shown, and they want the work to be seen and appreciated.
Tribe Nine may have ended service, but its story isn’t gone. Check out our full review to see what made the game stand out during its run!
Sources:
Tribe Nine Official End of Service Announcement Page
Tribe Nine End of Service Announcement on Steam
Kazutaka Kodaka’s Neo Neon Tribe Circle Announcement on Twitter (X)
Automaton Interview With Neo Neon Tribe Team
Neo Neon Tribe Official Website
