Almost four years after signing on to help publish Cryptozoic and Hex Entertainment's free-to-play digital trading card game Hex: Shards of Fate, Gameforge Entertainment is stepping away from the game and leaving it in the hands of its creators.
It's rare to see a publisher exit a project like Hex, which is described as an "MMOTCG" and presumably requires constant attention in terms of customer support, live operations, marketing and the like. Nevertheless, those are the sorts of duties that Gameforge says it is giving over to the game's developer, Hex Entertainment.
"Gameforge and Hex Entertainment have come to a mutual agreement where Hex Entertainment will again be responsible for publishing the game in addition to the development," reads an excerpt of the press release announcing the change-up. "Hex Entertainment and Gameforge will do their utmost to ensure that the transition will be as seamless as possible and without interruption of service."
The game itself has been operating in some form (beta or otherwise) for years now, though it appeared to be in trouble back in 2014 when Wizards of the Coast took Cryptozoic and Hex to court, alleging that Hex was a "clone" of Wizards' own Magic: The Gathering TCG. By September of 2015 that lawsuit had been settled out of court; the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.