Marvelous, the Japanese publisher behind Story of Seasons and Rune Factory, is ending its six-year partnership with Tencent, resulting in the cancellation of a mobile Story of Seasons game that had been in development since 2019. The move follows broader reports that Tencent is reassessing and pulling back its stakes across several Japanese games companies amid a wider industry downturn, making this cancellation part of a larger pattern rather than an isolated decision.

Marvelous's board voted on 31st July to terminate its alliance with Image Frame Investment, a Hong Kong-based Tencent subsidiary that bought a 20 percent stake in the company in May 2020 for around £48 million ($65m), making it Marvelous's largest shareholder. Tencent cited "business environment and profitability" for scrapping the mobile game, though the original 2019 licensing agreement remains in place, leaving Marvelous free to seek a new mobile partner, and there is no indication the separate upcoming Story of Seasons console game is affected.