Bandai Namco has announced the closure of its rhythm game visual novel combo Idolmaster SideM: Growing Stars. Content for the game will begin ramping down production in the coming months, and the game will officially end service once July 31st of this year rolls around.
Idolmaster is the latest in what seems to be a string of different mobile games closing down, and it never gets any more fun to hear. This one is especially brutal given that Idolmaster is a pretty popular IP, but also given that this particular entry into the series will have only been out for about 2 years. While that isn’t a terribly short time, it’s certainly not the typical lifespan of a popular mobile game.
The announcement of this closure was offered up during a developer livestream, and as is typically the case when it comes to game closures, there wasn’t a solid reason offered up for the ending of service except “a variety of factors”. We can only speculate what this means, but at the end of the day, this particular spinoff of the popular Idolmaster property seems like it’ll be wrapped up and gone regardless.
The game itself was a fairly typical anime rhythm gacha game akin to something like Colorful Stage, where you’d collect and interact with the boys from the Idolmaster franchise in small story sections cut between rhythm game stages. Each could use their unique abilities to affect the rhythm sections of the game, and you’d be able to level up said abilities over time. The story especially was pretty engaging, so it’s a bit of a shame there will inevitably be some loose ends here and there due to the closure.
Still, there’s a decent bit of time between now and the closure date, so interested players can catch up and enjoy the story before then by downloading the game for free at either of the links below this article!
Looking for more engaging plots to engage with? Check out our Top 15 best story games for Android!
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