Early iOS free-to-play title Eliminate shutting down this month

Here's a weird signpost for iOS gaming. Eliminate was one of the first big free-to-play titles on iOS: It was a core title for Ngmoco when first announced a few weeks after in-app purchases were allowed and helped pave the way to the current freemium-as-standard situation on Apple's App Store. But that part of history is coming to an end, as Ngmoco has announced that Eliminate's servers are being turned off for good.

The app is already gone from the App Store, and an in-game message says that the game's servers are going offline on May 25. That means after that, not only will players no longer be able to play the game, but any money or time put into the title will be gone for good. That's a shame for Eliminate fans, though it's unclear just how many of those there still are. And it means you can go ahead and put another mark on the timeline for iOS gaming: A freemium app that helped kick off the platform to begin with has reached the end of its lifetime.