Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE, the latest rhythm gacha game entry in the Love Live! franchise, has strangely announced its global release date and shutdown date in the same post on X, formerly known as Twitter. School Idol Festival 2 follows the decade-long original game in the series, Love Live! School Idol Festival, and Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars, which launched in 2019 in Japan and 2020 globally, before shutting down in June 2023. School Idol Festival 2, or SIF2, was launched last April in Japan, with a global version set to release this year.
In a post made on X, the official SIF2 account announced both the official release date and shutdown date of the global server. SIF2 will officially launch in March 2024, before shutting down alongside the Japanese server on May 31, 2024, making its lifetime just over two months. Fans and newcomers to the series alike reacted to the post with amusement, confusion and sadness, comparing its short run to its predecessor, the first School Idol Festival’s, long service time.
Many fans believe the failure of SIF2 is due to several factors, including price increases and lack of improvements in gameplay. Despite being released in 2013, SIF‘s gameplay held up for almost 10 years until its shutdown in early 2023, with fans enjoying the different, albeit more simplified gameplay of All Stars as well. Given the lack of changes to any of the gameplay or collection elements of the game, fans were disappointed that SIF2 completely replaced both of its predecessors, which many fans had played for years prior. Another reason for the backlash against SIF2 is the increased price of microtransactions when compared to the previous two games. Strangely, despite being planned for a shut down only two months after release, the global server will also feature microtransactions. The increased costs compounded with no changes to gameplay lead to mass player dissatisfaction, possibly a cause for the early death of SIF2.