Exclusive Apple Arcade Bomberman Game Implodes

Apple Arcade is removing its exclusive Amazing Bomberman title on May 29, 2025 without explanations. This follows news of developer Konami removing another Bomberman title, Super Bomberman R Online, from service in December 2022.

Amazing Bomberman fuses the competitive explode-the-other-players idea that’s fundamental to the series with rhythm action. Stages can change according to the music, and there are 200 levels to play through, though solo players only get access to the practice mode.

“Due to various circumstances, the game will be discontinued on May 29, 2025, and will no longer be playable from this day on,” Konami said via its official Bomberman account on X (Twitter).

Apple Bites Off More Than it Can Chew

Although Konami didn’t elaborate on what the “various circumstances” surrounding the removal of Amazing Bomberman are, it’s fair to say that Apple Arcade’s popularity, or lack of it, may well play a big part. Multiple comments under Konami’s announcement expressed surprise as it was the first they’d heard of Amazing Bomberman.

Arcade is the game subscription service exclusive to Apple devices and was reported to suffer from a low number of active users in its first year: 2 million in 2019 (when it launched), according to tech site The Information, with only 23% of game service subscribers in the US using it by the end of 2023, according to a Statisa report.

Apple Arcade’s main rival, Google Play, had 30% of game service subscribers using it around the end of 2023.

Always Available, Until It’s Not

Arcade launched with 100 games (now over 200) with many exclusive titles. These include a Tom Hanks-endorsed trivia game, Hanx 101 Trivia, and What The Car?, a quirky driving game featuring a level designed by comedian Amy Sedaris. 

Apple promises on its Arcade site that “Online or offline, games are always at your fingertips,” while Amazing Bomberman is being pulled completely. Konami did follow Super Bomberman R Online with Super Bomberman R 2 in September 2023, but as of this writing there’s no news of a possible Amazing Bomberman follow-up, or if the original will appear on other platforms. 

Apple has an official support document available that explains what happens when a game is removed from Arcade: it’ll be playable for another two weeks, but after that users will receive a No Longer Available message. 

So far, over 130 games have been removed from Arcade, with over 40 unavailable elsewhere. Amazing Bomberman is being removed from sale on May 15 2025. This means that from May 29, Amazing Bomberman is set to be yet another game that would benefit from some form of preservation attempt.