The third season of Transformes Prime hasn't even gotten an air date yet and a reports coming in from Kidscreen magazine has officially stated that Beast Hunters will be the final season for Prime. Finn Arnesen, SVP of international distribution and development at Hasbro, revealed to the mag that the 13 episodes of the third season end the story for Prime. Back in September voice actor Jeffrey Combs (Ratchet) caused a lot of buzz by stating the series was ending at the third season and he's completed his recordings. But soon after he said there would indeed be a fourth season, probably under pressure from Hasbro.  

This doesn't bode well for the toy line which is hitting stores now. Regardless of sales stores tend to stop ordering figures for series that no longer have cartoon support and Hasbro tends to stop releasing figures regardless of demand. That's only made more confusing by figure lines like Generations showing success in stores despite never having entertainment backing in the first place. For now Prime is mirroring the history of of the previous Transformers cartoon series Transformers: Animated. Both series had much delayed toy launches months after their respective shows debuted, both have had three season runs with Prime also likely to have its ending rushed, both have met their demise in favor of a new Transformers movie (TF4 is scheduled for July 2014), and like with Animated Hasbro will certainly leave a chunk of the final waves of the toy line left unreleased. Pretty disheartening for fans of the series, knowing what its fate will likely look like as history repeats itself.

It's not entirely bad news, however. Arnesen also revealed that a new show is coming in 2014 as part of the big Transformers 30th anniversary celebration plus the aforementioned Transformers 4 movie and what will certainly be a major expansion of the Generations line which will already be sporting the new 30th logo this year. So sure, it's no fun seeing a series end, but at least Hasbro is wasting little time in filling the void it'll leave behind.

[via TFormers, Seibertron]