Thursday, January 12, 2017

Let's Speculate ... Utapri mobile games

I love to speculate and with the recent announcements from Broccoli I can do so about a couple of my current interests, Uta no Prince-sama and mobile games.

First off it was announced a few days ago that Broccoli have entered a partnership with KLab. (Anime News Network article) KLab is probably best known for developing the Love Live School Idol Festival mobile game.

Then in potentially related news Broccoli announced that they are ending service for their mobile game for Uta no Prince-sama, UtaPri Island, in March. (ANN article)

If you have been looking at the Oricon sales charts the singles from the groups for the Ai Chu mobile game have been ranking rather well and of course they are far from the only mobile game based male idol units. IDOLiSH7 is starting to gear up with its own CD releases and already has other cross media promotion with a manga and a light novel. And then looking at how massive Love Live is it would not seem unsurprising for Broccoli to want to throw their hat into the ring. Especially since they have a property already in full swing that could be adapted to such a game.

And with the announcement that they are ending the mobile game that they do have for UtaPri it looks like they could be wanting to do just that. As it is not like UtaPri is no longer popular and they do have a fourth season of the anime series already announced so they have plans to continue it for the near future at least. And mobile games are not only popular but can also be quite profitable, especially for multi-media series as can be seen with the rise of the idol inspired mobile rhythm games. As they work as commercials as well as being a product in its own right with the use of songs that can be purchased when released as singles, and having promotional codes for the game as a bonus for the purchase of the physical releases.

Honestly I would love for UtaPri to have their own rhythm game like Love Live SIF. It would give them more reasons to want to release more singles, instead of waiting for when they have a new PSP game (which looks like it will all be PSP Vita from now on) or a new season of the anime series. And with the main group of STARISH as well as Quartet Night and from the looks of things HEAVENS will be added to the mix in the near future there is plenty of characters to create "cards" for, not to mention an already sizable song library.

One thing I could see being an issue is that most of the games I have mentioned use group songs with sub-units and solos as special songs and UtaPri has far more solo songs than group songs for the various groups. But that can be fixed, and having a mobile game like this would be a part of that fix.

Another is that the UtaPri franchise is hitting its 5th anniversary so one has to wonder how much longer it is going to keep going. Though with HEAVENS adding members and looking to get focus it looks like Broccoli is already thinking about how to continue on without depending too much on STARISH. And it is a series that it could be adjusted to start new groups eventually, seeing as the original setting is a school for aspiring idols.

I know I am really getting my hopes up for this but I love the UtaPri series and have come to really enjoy the idol inspired mobile games so I really want to see them mix. Even though it could make me broke between it and IDOLiSH7.

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