Summary
Popular upcoming mobile gameLove Live! School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Livehas announced both the launch of the game’s Global version and its shutdown date at the same time. The newest game from the massively popular idol anime franchise comes on the heels of its predecessor,Love Live! School Idol Festival, ending its service early last year. The originalmobile rhythm gameboasted more than 40 million players at its peak in 2018, split between the Global and Japanese versions. Now, the game has announced the launch of the Global version, while also confirming its end-of-service.
Based on the popularLove Live!multimedia franchise,Love Live! School Idol Festivalplays as a gacha rhythm game featuring characters from each of the franchise’s anime adaptations. The beloved franchise has seen a number of video game spinoffs, recently being turned into a Metroidvania withlast year’sYohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue.Love Live!has also produced multiple mobile games with the twoSchool Idol Festivalgames, as well asSchool Idol Festival All-Starsas a mix between RPGs and rhythm games. Now, however, the franchise’s newest entry looks to be surprisingly short-lived.
In a new announcement posted to the game’s Twitter,Love Live! School Idol Festival 2has officially confirmed the game’s upcoming global release date. The post reveals that theSchool Idol Festivalsequel’s Global Version is scheduled to launch sometime during February 2024. However, during the same post, themobile game’s end-of-servicewas also confirmed with the game scheduled to be sunsetted on May 31, ceasing all in-app purchases. The final release timeline will see the mobile game active and playable for only three months from release to end-of-service.
Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Live Release Date and End-of-Service Date
The announcement has been met with universal confusion from both fans of the game and the wider gaming community. Many fans have brought into question the decision by developer Bushiroad to release the game’s Global version at all, given the short timeframe of availability. Others have compared the game’s sudden sunsetting to the rapid decline ofSchool Idol Festival 2’s Japanese version, ending its serviceless than a year after the mobile game’s release. The originalLove Live! School Idol Festivalran considerably longer, launching in April 2013 and closing in March 2023.
The decision from developer Bushiroad to shut downLove Live! School Idol Festival 2comes as the franchise has recently doubled down on its video game spinoffs. Alongside the previously mentionedBlaze in the Deepblue, the franchise’s fantasy spinoff recently revealed another new spinoff inYohane the Parhelion: Numazu in the Mirage. The newest entry from developer BeXide shifts the franchise into a strategic deckbuilding game, similar to titles likeSlay the SpireandInscryption. The sunsetting ofSchool Idol Festival 2will mark an unfortunate end to the long-running mobile game franchise.
