The dating sim world was rocked this week, when GREE announced that they are cancelling all of their free dating sims. No longer will players be able to date their favorite characters, such as Shy Bodyguard, Shy Prince, and Shy Celebrity.
Fans have reacted with all of the wrath of Angry Bodyguard, Angry Prince, and Angry Celebrity. “How dare they cancel the games that they haven’t updated in over a year?” yelled one person. “Now I have to find another place to get poorly-translated games that occasionally still have Japanese text in the dialog box!”.
Sure, cancelling three games doesn’t sound like a big deal, but this is important news because GREE makes up a significant percentage of the iPhone dating sim market. The Visual Novel database says that there are only 45 such games in existence.
Wait. That doesn’t sound right. Let me apply a filter.
Okay, there are about FIVE free dating sims for the iPhone, if we disregard offerings from the Sushi Dating Sim company. Also, Phoenix Wright probably shouldn’t be on the list of dating sims, even though that’s totally how I play those games.
The cancellation goes into effect three days before Thanksgiving, which gives everyone almost enough time to finish a storyline. No in-game purchases will be refunded, and they are not accepting emails about the shutdown.
