ドリフェス！ Incomprehensible

More than a year now since we had to say goodbye to the DF app... And it still hurts just as much. And at that time, at least there was a final live to look forward to. And the obscure Chinese version of the app as well. The shutdown itself was incomprehensible enough: the fanbase was obviously strong and obviously in love with the franchise. Despite the mourning, people remained as active and dedicated as before...

And in the time since then, Bandai continued to organise events and release stuff for (limited) purchase. Not necessarily cheap stuff, either. On one hand: sure, it's understandable, they want to make money. But then why shoot down the entirety of DF at all? The fact that there are enough people out there to buy up whatever they organise/release so that they still make a profit off it should be proof enough that things aren't as lost as they may or may not believe. On the other hand... I can't help feeling insulted by it. Sure, fans want as much stuff about their favourites as possible, before said favourites go away. Especially if them going away is already decided. So sure, give them what they want. But doing so after the way they handled the shutdown? That even the people involved in making things had not been aware of it before the actual announcement? And releasing even more stuff afterwards that wasn't even in the plans back then? Uh. Yeah. Sorry. As nice as all the extras are, at this point you're just disgustingly milking a desperate fanbase for every yen they have.

But what's more is after the quiet, dormant period and obscure (lack of?) news - it's now announced that the awaited Chinese version of the app is not happening either. It's just ... gone. With all the development that's went into it, because apparently quite a bit of development did go into it, you decide against releasing it. Robbing us from another "last straw" escape from the harsh realities of the franchise being gone. Pulling the rug from under our feet one more time, in the same abrupt manner as before.

I have no words. The fact that it hurts should have been evident for the past years... if it still isn't, I don't know what else to say. So lost.

I would say it would be nice to see the app, as a whole, with all its bells and whistles, and all the events and songs progressively playable/unlockable as a PS4 game at least..... That could remain for posterity. But I know that it would be an immense undertaking to port it from Android/iOS. And, unfortunately, I also know that with the PS5 just over the horizon now, the timing couldn't be worse to just start thinking about a PS4 release.