The hottest new mobile game of 2022 was officially announced today to be discontinued.

Today (the 9th), *Deep Space Eye* announced via its official account that the game will officially cease updates following the V5.2 update on July 23. The servers will remain online, and players will still be able to log in and enjoy the existing content as usual.

The announcement stated bluntly: "Due to the team's lack of capability and experience, the quality of much of the content produced fell short of the administrators' expectations, and the project has struggled to achieve satisfactory results in the market."

At the same time, *Deep Space Eye* has released a refund policy, under which unused in-game tokens in players’ accounts will be refunded based on a set formula.For the official server channel, a 100% refund will be issued. For the iOS channel, the refund rate varies depending on whether it is before or after the revenue-sharing ratio adjustment on March 15, 2026, ranging from approximately 68.6% to 73.5%. For the Bilibili server and Android co-publishing channels such as Xiaomi, the refund rate will be “announced separately after consultation and confirmation with the respective channels.”

These two announcements signal that this 3D action mobile game, which has been in operation for more than four years, has officially entered its "end-of-life" phase.

According to information from the official account, even though it has been confirmed that the game will soon cease updates, new content will continue to be released during the final stages of *Deep Space Eye*: the “By Your Side” update will launch in September, and the main storyline “The Human World” will be added later this year.

A Highlight from Four Years Ago: Nearly 100 million in revenue in its first week after launch, which once accounted for Yongshi’s entire annual revenue

Let’s rewind to April 22, 2022, when *Deep Space Eye* officially launched its open beta.Developed in-house by Yongshi Network—a co-developer of *Azur Lane*—this 3D action mobile game features on-screen co-op combat. On its first day of open beta, it ranked 10th on the iOS Top Grossing chart and remained firmly in the Top 10 throughout its first week, with an 8.3 rating on TapTap (based on over 80,000 reviews). Third-party data indicates that the game generated nearly 100 million yuan in revenue during its first week.

Impressive Debut Results

At that time—less than two weeks after the resumption of game license approvals and during a lull in the domestic anime-style game market—*Deep Space Eye*’s launch performance stood out as a rare bright spot among the few new anime-style games available at the time.

The game's explosive success was directly reflected in Yongshi Network's financial performance. According to its 2022 annual report, the company's revenue for that year reached 347 million yuan, an increase of approximately 191% year-over-year; net profit exceeded 123 million yuan, up 150.55% year-over-year.

Before the launch of *Deep Space Eye*, more than 99% of Yongshi’s revenue came from a single title, *Azur Lane*, and the company’s total revenue for 2021 was just 119 million yuan. *Deep Space Eye* single-handedly propelled Yongshi’s revenue past the 300 million yuan mark.

A steady decline since 2023, primarily due to a gap in product availability

However, the success of *Deep Space Eye* was short-lived. According to estimates by DianDian Data, the game’s Chinese server generated approximately 140 million yuan in total revenue through iOS channels in 2022, but this figure quickly dropped to around 43 million yuan in 2023.

Yongshi’s 2023 annual report shows that the company’s annual revenue was 279 million yuan, down 19.43% year-over-year, while net income attributable to shareholders was 87.2 million yuan, down 29.02% year-over-year. The decline was primarily attributed to “a significant drop in revenue from the Chinese server of games operated independently by the company.”Subsequently, in 2024 and 2025, revenue fell further to 250 million yuan and 229 million yuan, respectively, while net profit attributable to shareholders declined by 56.25% and 25.91%.

Behind the ongoing pressure on performance lies a gap in product supply.

In its 2025 annual report, Yongshi acknowledged that the decline in its core business (game revenue) was primarily due to the long-tail performance of the Chinese server of *Eye of Deep Space*; the company currently has only two live titles—*Azur Lane* and *Eye of Deep Space*—and its pipeline of next-generation titles has yet to be released.