EA announced today that The Simpsons Tapped Out is shutting down. The free-to-play mobile game, which launched back in 2012, is the most recent Simpsons video game to be released.
On September 26, EA announced that it had made the “difficult decision” to shut down Tapped Out. The mobile game—which featured hundreds of characters, quests, events, dialogue written by Simpsons writers, and let players re-build Springfield—will be removed from app stores on October 31. EA has turned off in-app purchases already. The game will remain playable until January 24, 2025. After that, servers for Tapped Out will be turned off and the game will no longer be playable.
“The decision to end our twelve-year journey is an emotional one,” posted EA on the official Tapped Out Facebook page. “Together with our partners at The Simpsons and The Walt Disney Company, we have delighted in bringing this game to you, the fans, and seeing how you’ve each built your own beloved versions of Springfield. It has been a remarkable journey, and we are grateful that we’ve been able to deliver 308 updates, 831 characters and including today’s final farewell 1,463 questlines.”
Personally, I’m sad to see Tapped Out go away. I’ve been playing the game for over a decade now and have enjoyed returning to it every few months or so to check out new events, spend a few bucks on some silly new characters, and enjoy all the Halloween fun each other October.
While The Simpsons Tapped Out is over a decade old at this point, it’s still the newest Simpsons game available right now. And you have to go back even further to find the last Simpsons game released on consoles. That was 2007’s so-so The Simpsons Game. Before that? 2003’s Hit & Run, a game that’s over 20 years old now. It makes me sad that a TV show that used to get numerous tie-in games, some of which were pretty good, has gone over a decade without a new video game.
Here’s an FAQ about the shutdown from EA as posted by longtime Tapped Out fansite TSTOAddicts.
Q: Is there a way to be able to obtain items from days long gone, now that events are over?
A: Yes! Throughout the coming weeks, we will be returning as much content from the past twelve years as possible, in waves of a few years of releases at a time. Look for these in the store! This includes both Premium and Prize items. Waves of items will be released on a weekly cadence for the next five weeks.
Q: What about land and item limits?
A: As part of the previous event, A Bart Future, we phased in increased land tile availability, along with ramped-up item placement limits. While we are not adding any additional increases with Taps, there will be a reference to it within the final questline, as we did not formally announce this enhancement
previously.
New Items:
There are new items coming to the store as part of the final wave of Taps store items – a building and a bunch of decorations, that were not previously released. All of these items will be available for in-game money.