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AOKANA's Game Maker sprite Halts Operations at End of March

The official Twitter account for the sprite company revealed on Sunday that the company will cease operations at the end of March, and its "sprite STORE" online store will also close at the same time. sprite announced its planned halt of operations last June after the release of the AOKANA: Four Rhythm Across the Blue (Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm) Perfect Edition / 4th Anniversary Box last November, with no concrete plans to resume operations.

In subsequent Twitter posts, sprite noted that it is not possible to "revive" the company, and the company has no plans for crowdfunding. sprite also clarified that there is no possibility of producing new works and continuations of old works for sprite, but noted in a Twitter post on January 30 that, following the sale of its IP and brand, that the IP may be revived by a different company with different staff.

sprite/fairys announced last May that it was dissolving the fairys brand, so AOKANA: Four Rhythm Across the Blue, which is copyrighted under sprite/fairys, would be copyrighted under sprite only. Smartphone game company FLEET announced last March that it was acquiring fairys, but the announcement is no longer available.

sprite/fairys released AOKANA: Four Rhythm Across the Blue on PC in November 2014, for PlayStation Vita in February 2016, for PlayStation 4 in January 2017, and for Nintendo Switch in March 2018. The game received a television anime adaptation by GONZO that premiered in January 2016. Following the announcement of cessation of operations, sprite indefinitely halted development on Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm Extra 2 and Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm Zwei.

sprite also published the original game for Love, Election and Chocolate in 2010.

Source: sprite's Twitter account (link 2, link 3) via Hachima Kikō