Summary
- Mobile rhythm game Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Live recently announced its February 2024 release window, while also confirming its end-of-service date on May 31.
- The baffling announcement has seen many fans question the decision to release the global version, considering its short availability and comparing it to the rapid decline of the Japanese version.
- The announcement comes as the Love Live! Franchise has doubled down on video games, recently releasing multiple video game spinoffs.
Popular upcoming mobile game Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Live has 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 original mobile rhythm game boasted 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 popular Love Live! Multimedia franchise, Love Live! School Idol Festival plays 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 with last year's Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue. Love Live! Has also produced multiple mobile games with the two School Idol Festival games, as well as School Idol Festival All-Stars as a mix between RPGs and rhythm games. Now, however, the franchise's newest entry looks to be surprisingly short-lived.
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In a new announcement posted to the game's Twitter, Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 has officially confirmed the game's upcoming global release date. The post reveals that the School Idol Festival sequel's Global Version is scheduled to launch sometime during February 2024. However, during the same post, the mobile game's end-of-service was 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
- Release Window: February 2024
- End-of-Service Date: May 31, 2024
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 of School Idol Festival 2's Japanese version, ending its service less than a year after the mobile game's release. The original Love Live! School Idol Festival ran considerably longer, launching in April 2013 and closing in March 2023.
The decision from developer Bushiroad to shut down Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 comes as the franchise has recently doubled down on its video game spinoffs. Alongside the previously mentioned Blaze in the Deepblue, the franchise's fantasy spinoff recently revealed another new spinoff in Yohane the Parhelion: Numazu in the Mirage. The newest entry from developer BeXide shifts the franchise into a strategic deckbuilding game, similar to titles like Slay the Spire and Inscryption. The sunsetting of School Idol Festival 2 will mark an unfortunate end to the long-running mobile game franchise.