Here's a question we don't consider enough: what happens when a studio pulls the plug on its micro-transaction fueled games? The answer is obvious and a bit unsettling. You don't get to play anymore, and all those ad impressions you handed out, all of those extra games you downloaded in exchange for precious in-game coin, and all the real money you spent just disappears into the ether.

Unfortunately, we bring up this subject as a result of a recent ngmoco decision. The studio has announced plans to "shut down" Epic Pet Wars [Free], Epic Chef Wars [Free], Epic Crime Wars [Free], and Titan Wars [Free] on Jan. 16, 2011. After this date, these games will "no longer be playable."

Epic Pet Wars was one of ngmoco's first major acquisitions as part of a larger acquisition of developer Miraphonic in 2009. At the time, ngmoco's Plus+ platform was a fledgling one and the studio presumably wanted to flesh out its offerings utilizing Miraphonic's comparatively massive player base. Now it has dozens of Plus+ games, most of which support in-game purchases, and many which enjoyed boosts on the top download charts thanks to in-game offers from Wars games.

Games with expiration dates are a new-ish concept, though we should realistically expect all our cloud-based, online-focused romps to come to an end at some point. Business is cold and hard and if the numbers don't line up? Well, this is what happens, though I can't imagine anyone, especially the fans of these latest casualties, can be happy about it.