From the article, "Namco Bandai, what the hell are you thinking?! Yes, I know this game is part of an established, beloved series in Japan and isn’t even a year old there yet, but still! This will be most people’s first exposure to the series! No one will pay $54.99 for one of these games. I don’t think even PSP and Vita owners would have paid $54.99 a pop if these had shown up on the PlayStation Store! And you’re releasing them on iTunes, land of the $0.99 and $1.99 games! Do you like wasting money?"
Recently, during a special year-end livestream, Bandai Namco Entertainment revealed that they are currently developing a new console game for The Idolmaster franchise. The game will be announced during a livestream that takes place on January 20, 2020 at 20:00 JST. It will be live-streamed on Youtube and Niconico.
Bandai Namco will end service for smartphone games The Idolmaster: Shiny Festa Harmonic Score, The Idolmaster: Shiny Festa Rhythmic Record, and The Idolmaster: Shiny Festa Melodic Disc on March 15, the publisher announced.
Michibiku's Jenni Lada writes, "Before deciding on a The Idolmaster game, we have to take a look at who you are and what you know. These are text heavy titles. How much Japanese do you know? There are entries that apply to people of all skill levels, so I’m sorting them by how much you do or don’t need to know."
Damn those waifu's are expensive.
namco bandai hates psp-psvita west users.first no tales of hearts,innocense now idolmaster in ios,are you kidding.
Id feel bad for who ever pays that much for something on ios.
Hope the numbers can be tracked (projected sales/profit/digital sales)..
If this thing succeeds, it's going to be major slap in the face for the VITA.
Who knows, there may be more Otaku that own recent iOS devices.. specially iPhones.
They can be discrete and in quick access with their waifus since they won't have to lug a PSP/VITA/3DS alongside their smart device.
At the end of the day, it just shows how install bases are too ******* attractive for publishers.