Takara Tomy announced that it will end support for two of its arcade games, PriPara and Kiratto Pri-Chan, by March 2022. Amusement centers in Japan will begin taking down the cabinets from February 28, 2022. However, Takara Tomy will still retain several PriPara cabinets at select Prism Stone outlets in Japan.
PriPara is short for Prism Paradise, while Kiratto Pri-Chan‘s full name can be translated to Sparkling Prism Channel. They are the second and third entries in Takara Tomy’s Pretty series of arcade games for young girls. In these games, players can customize their avatar idol’s attires and then have them perform a song. During the performance, the player can also try out a rhythm game by entering inputs at the right time.
The first version of PriPara came out in 2014. Since then, Takara Tomy gradually added more content and updates to the arcade game. The last major update, which renamed the game to PriPara All Idol Series, appeared in 2019. Takara Tomy released a console version of PriPara titled PriPara: All Idol Perfect Stage for Nintendo Switch in March 2018. The company also launched Kiratto Pri-Chan in arcades shortly afterward in April 2018.
Going forward, Takara Tomy will focus on Waccha Primagi, the fourth and latest iteration in the Pretty series. The company launched the new arcade game in October 2021. The Japanese Twitter account used to announce the older title closures is also currently dedicated to Waccha Primagi.
PriPara and Kiratto Pri-Chan are currently available on arcades in Japan. While several PriPara cabinets will still remain intact past February 2022, Kiratto Pri-Chan will no longer exist after that month.
