Are you tired of long-running live service games with no end in sight? Well, Bushiroad’s Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE! isn’t just getting a global launch date; it’s also getting a global closure date, at the same time.
In a tweet from the SIF account, the company says it is “excited to break the news to you that the global version of Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE! is launching soon in February 2024.” Then, in the next paragraph: “However, we also want to inform you that, the Global Version will close its doors on May 31, 2024, and cease in-app purchases accordingly.”
It is a little surreal, to see a launch and closure in the same tweet like that. Mobile games spinning up, making their cash, and closing down later isn’t exactly news, but doing it all in one fell swoop? Incredible.
Grand opening, grand closing
As the text notes, this is the global version specifically. Per Gematsu, the School Idol Festival 2 opened its doors in Japan for iOS and Android on April 15, 2023. It’s also closing earlier than the global version, on March 31, 2024. So while the global version won’t make it three months, the game as a whole will not have made it a full year on either version.
Part of me has to wonder whether this is due to some sort of obligation, that the global version is even going live at all. Or maybe this is just the most nihilistic take on mobile gacha games yet.
The games industry has not been easy on anybody lately, so I do have a lot of sympathy for the developers who put work into making something for the Love Live! fans and have to see their work disappear so fast. Maybe a third School Idol Festival will see more time in the light than this particular entry in the Love Live! canon.
