The Japanese portal myjitsu published an article pointing out that the announced closure of the video game for smartphones “LoveLive! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live!“, just a year after being released, could be an indicator that the “LoveLive!” as a whole is no longer as popular as it used to be in the past.
«The smartphone video game “Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live!” has announced the closure of its servers for next March 31 in Japan. With this, it turns out that different video games from the “Love Live!” have been closed one after another, so there are fears that the franchise is becoming obsolete and fans are wondering, what will happen to “Love Live!” in the future?».
«“Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live!” is the most recent release of the “School Festival” mobile video game franchise, which includes the different school idols of multiple generations. It is a rhythm video game that allows fans to participate with all the songs in the franchise to date».
«The previous video game, titled “Love Live! School Idol Festival” ended its service on March 31, 2023 and “School Idol Festival 2” was announced as the immediate successor. However, less than a year since its release on April 15, 2023, this new sequel will also cease its activities. Another previous release, titled “Link! Like! Love Live!”, is still in service and includes the new generation “Hasunosora Girls’ High School Idol Club”, although with a different style of play than usual».
«In other words, It is possible that the usual style of smartphone games that characterized the “Love Live!” franchise has come to an end with “Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live!”to give way to a new style».
«An industry expert commented: “Regarding the cessation of services of ‘Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live!’, it has been pointed out that the quality of this new video game was simply bad, and that it was embarrassing compared to the first release. However, having said that, can’t it also be said that the popularity of ‘Love Live!’ Has it generally decreased over the years? The size of the franchise as a whole has increased so much that it is difficult for new fans to integrate, and there are also some who are ‘too big’. In fact, during a collaboration concert with “The Idolmaster” at the Tokyo Dome in December 2023, there were some sections where a VTuber made an appearance and was completely booed. Apparently the ‘Love Live!’ fanbase refuses to allow the franchise to evolve, making it inevitable that the franchise will decline“».
«The “Love Live!” franchise It will have remained active for fourteen years in 2024. Since there are always new developments in both events and video games, it is often said that the voice actresses who play the characters “already have a job guaranteed for life.” However, in recent years, the impact of live events has been declining within the anime industry, and “Love Live!” has not been the exception. Now added to the problems of video games for smartphones, if things continue like this the future of the voice actresses of the “Love Live!” could be at risk».
«Currently, the musical unit Liella! from “Love Live! Superstar!!” has become a great success, but its popularity has focused more on the fact that “fans adore the girls as idols” and not so much because they are part of “Love Live!” What does the future hold for the top school idol franchise?».
Fountain: myjitsu
