Dear Tic Tacticians,

In 2013, we released a product that was based on a game every schoolchild across the world has either heard of or played — Tic Tac Toe. Our version of that iconic game took the basic mechanics and added some new elements to make it an inherently deeper experience — the type of game that you could pick up and play at any hour of the day or night.

For the most part, we feel like we succeeded in that respect. We received a lot of feedback and kind words regarding the depth, strategy, and versatility of the gameplay. For some of our players, it became an almost constant obsession, which is one of the greatest compliments a developer can receive in this day and age where attention is often measured in minutes if not seconds.

Tic Tactics was our first online game and a technical challenge from the very beginning. We learned a lot of things along the way and we made a lot of mistakes that we wish we could take back — from the restricted time settings to the lack of an online chat function. These were all features we were determined to one day provide via updates. In fact, we must have told hundreds of players over the years that this was on our roadmap for “future” versions of the game.

Alas, the game never reached the critical mass we were hoping for and supporting and updating it was fueled far more by our commitment to our existing players than anything else. Online costs to support the game continued to eat up any revenue it actually made and our development team gradually got engaged with other projects at our studio. That said, we were determined to keep the game operational for all of the die-hard fans that continued to play it many times per day.

Fast forward to earlier this year. When iOS 11 was finally announced, we realized the end was near. Apple decreed that all older games had to be updated to continue to exist on the App Store, and as much as we wanted to do it, we knew that overhauling Tic Tactics to support these technological changes would be a large undertaking. As much as we want to continue to support the game, there becomes a point where the size of the audience playing and the cost to continue developing for it outweigh the benefits of keeping it running. Since iOS 11 has now been released, we have reached that unfortunate crossroad.

Which brings us to this sad announcement — Tic Tactics has been shut down as of November 2017. We have officially suspended the service on our servers and we will no longer support the game any further. This is a very painful announcement for us to make, as the last thing we want to do is let any of our players down. We hope that those of you who have stuck with us for these past four years have enjoyed playing the game — we certainly have enjoyed making it for you.

Thank you again, and we look forward to making something equally as cool for you in the future.

— Your Friends at Hidden Variable Studios

XOXO