Bandai Namco announced that it will change the format of upcoming Idolmaster live concerts originally scheduled for mid-to-late January 2022. The company made the decision in consideration of a new coronavirus variant outbreak in Japan. The concerts will turn into online-exclusive streams that will not have any live audience.
This announcement affected the upcoming concerts for The Idolmaster: Million Live and Cinderella Girls. The Million Live concert was originally set to take place at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on January 14-16, 2022. Meanwhile, Cinderella Girls’ tenth-anniversary tour was due to visit Okinawa Arena on January 29-30, 2022. Bandai Namco has canceled both concerts and will replace them with live streams recorded elsewhere.
Most recently, Bandai Namco held a live concert for the sixth anniversary of The Idolmaster: SideM in Tokyo on January 8-9, 2022. The company successfully held this event with a physical venue and audience. The new outbreak only affects the format of other concerts that will take place later this month.
Cinderella Girls and Million Live are separate sub-series under The Idolmaster franchise. Each game features a different roster of characters, and both titles originated from mobile games. The latest titles from the respective sub-series, The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls – Starlight Stage and Million Live – Theater Days, are both available for Android and iOS devices in Japan. Bandai Namco has also launched a PC version of Starlight Stage on DMM Games.
