In a move resulted in a collective double-take, Love Live! School idol festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE!, a new entry in the Love Live! rhythm and J-Pop idol simulation series, was announced to be getting a global release with a full English localization. However, the announcement simultaneously revealed that Love Live! School idol festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE! would also have its global servers shutdown on May 31st, 2024. It's... simply the most bonkers wild video game announcement I have ever seen. @marino is the arbiter of the wiki page for Announced and Released on the Same Day wiki page on the site, but I have no idea if this is a concept page that deserves to be added. Unless I am wrong, no other game has ever been "Announced and Discontinued on the Same Day."

You currently need to pre-register to be able to play the game while it is active, and there's even an official Twitter account for the game. Is something afoul? The most likely theory posited to explain this turn of events is that the game's global release is being done to fulfill contractual obligations, but by the time the localization of the original Japanese was complete, the game was flagged for obsolescence. Such is how things are in the fickle world of mobile and gacha games.

If you wish to learn more about what this series is about, we have a shockingly detailed wiki page for Love Live! School Idol Festival, which is the first entry in the School Idol Festival sub-series in the greater Love Live! universe/franchise.

Everything about that name hurts my brain.

Did Nintendo tell people they were only going to sell that Switch port of the first Fire Emblem for three months when they announced it, or did that come later? That was the first thought I had before I clicked into this thread. That this was some sort of extreme FOMO garbage. But this seems a little less intentional and more just bad timing. I presume the original release is also shutting down? The tweet does only mention the global version though.

Wait,is it May or March?

Thanks for pointing that out! I made a typo.

Oddly enough, from what I can tell, the Japanese release is scheduled to shut down in March. So, it does just seem like a case of bad timing. Also, the previous game in the series lasted nearly 10 years before it was shut down and replaced with this game, which only made it a year, which I just find to be wild. I'm only very basically familiar with Love Live! and now I'm wondering if there was some massive decline in popularity, or if the game just wasn't very good.

Finally a live services game launches with a realistic and achievable roadmap that the team will actually be able to follow.

@brian_: I think the limited releases (and it wasn't just Fire Emblem, it was also Mario 3D All Stars and that jump rope game) were announced prior to release, but there they made a lot of sense because it was intentionally weaponized FOMO. Also if you bought the game during the purchase window you can still redownload and play it today.

Limited time releases are a thing (2K sports games usually launch with roughly 2 years of online support, not always pre-announced, and a hot garbage policy by a hot garbage company) but there's usually some rhyme or reason behind them. Weaponize FOMO. Force people to upgrade to the next version.

None of that is present here.

Listen as a gacha player you gotta be ready for end of service at all times even in the middle of a pre register announcement. Stay on your toes!

Love cannot exist within a school. Shut it down.

@shindig: Do you think it can bloom on a battlefield?

@bigsocrates: The aidoru world IS a battlefield and Love is their weapon.

Yes. As long as the battlefield is not also a school.