Ascend: Hand of Kul to remain playable on 360 until November

Despite the game being discontinued on Xbox 360, existing owners of Ascend: Hand of Kul will remain able to play it until November 18, after which it will officially close. The news follows Microsoft's removal of the free-to-play action-RPG from the marketplace, a decision developer Signal Studios only learned of as it was investigating player troubles.

"We can confirm that effective November 18, 2014, Ascend on Xbox 360 will close," a Microsoft spokesperson told Eurogamer. "Players will still be able to play Ascend on Xbox 360 and use any content they have already acquired until the game closure date.
"This only applies to Ascend on Xbox 360. Ascend will continue to be available on the Steam gaming platform. We thank Signal Studios and its community of gamers for their support and look forward to welcoming them into our other gaming communities."

Eurogamer reports Microsoft didn't offer an explanation for the game's impending closure. The company published the game on Xbox 360 while Signal Studios self-published the PC version, which the dev claims offers a "wealth of improvements over the original," despite still being in beta. The Toy Soldiers studio is encouraging Xbox 360 players to move to PC by offering newbies 25K in souls, which they can exchange for armor, buffs and spells.