Love Live! gacha game casually announces global launch and closure at the same time

Good news idol fans! The global release date for Love Live! School idol festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE! has been revealed. But before you get too excited, the game's global closure date was also announced in the same Twitter post. Launching in February 2024, the game will be supported for a whopping three months, before closing its doors in May 2024.

What that actually means is that you'll be able to download and play the game to your heart's desire starting from next month (with an exact release date to be determined), but when May 31 rolls around you'll no longer be able to download it or buy any in-app purchases. This is a gacha game by the way, with new idols being acquired through in-app purchases.

This may very well be the first ever simultaneous release and closure date announcement. But what's going on here, why is this happening? Well, Love Live! School idol festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE! is a relatively recent release for a popular idol IP. In spite of its popularity, the Japanese release back in 2023 didn't exactly make waves. With the global version being MIA throughout the whole of last year, even as its predecessor Love Live! School idol festival 1 was taken offline, there's not really been a game for idol fans to play (or perhaps more importantly for publisher Bushiroad to spend money on).

Fast forward to today, and the game finally gets its global release date. However there must not be an expectation that the game will do very well financially, as in-app purchases are being shut off three months after the global launch. It's a... bold strategy. On one hand you could argue this is perhaps the greatest source of FOMO one could attach to a gacha - get the idols you want before they're gone forever! On the other hand - the hand most players will likely side with - why bother spending money on a game that's just going to close its doors within three months?

As you can imagine, this has resulted in ample confusion from both casual spectators and gacha fans alike, both parties unable to gleam the potential benefits of releasing a shiny new video game while simultaneously affixing an explosive collar to its neck. I suppose if nothing else, it makes for an interesting case study. One wonders how much money School idol festival 2 will make - if any - once it eventually releases this February.

What do you think of all this? Let us know below! If you're interested in other gacha games - namely ones that aren't showing signs of closure any time soon, why not check out our Genshin Impact code page, and our Honkai Star Rail code page.