This Week in Mobile Games - Obey Me On The Holy Night

Another hearty welcome to you, to this, the latest edition of This Week in Mobile Games! I've been decompressing a bit by locking in with Bungie's Marathon, a definitely-not-mobile game, but a grand time all the same. It's an extraction shooter that takes place on the far-off planet of Tau Ceti IV, where "runners" pick through the shelves of an unfamiliar culture looking for artifacts and valuables.

Speaking of picking through an unfamiliar culture, I've also been spending some time reading up a bit on how the other half games on their mobile devices, to inaugurate the column's newest semi-regular feature: The Maiden's Corner, where I'll highlight news and stories related to otome games and similar underserved genres. One reason for the Maiden's Corner's existence is the fact that, outside of more dedicated enthusiast communities, news about games with audiences that skew heavily female is disproportionately low compared to their overall success. I'll be the first to admit that such games aren't really in my usual wheelhouse, and I'm quite grateful to Rebecca for helping steer a few juicy tips my way.

Maidens' Corner: Obey Me! Spreads its Wings with Obey Me! Sinner's Choice

Earlier, Jean-Karlo mentioned that fans of visual novels would have something to look forward to in the form of a new 9 R.I.P. title for the Nintendo Switch. As it happens, those with a love for NTT Solmare's Obey Me! Series of mobile romance games will also have a new visual novel to get hyped for: Obey Me! Sinner's Choice, set to make its debut in the Autumn season of 2026. 

There is, however, a catch: Unlike the other Obey Me! games, Sinner's Choice isn't a mobile title, but is instead destined for PC via Steam, though NTT Solmare has stated that console and "other platform" releases are "under consideration." Obey Me! Sinner's Choice is a spin-off of the core Obey Me! games, which pair the player off with a number of ikemen demon brothers. But rather than the harem-focused play of 2019's Obey Me! One Master to Rule Them All, 2023's Obey Me! Nightbringer, or the most recent release, Obey Me! Till Death Do Us Part, Sinner's Choice is a more narrative-focused experience centered around Lucifer, the arguable leader of the core cast of seven demon brothers. The fallen angel's been trapped in the deepest prison of Hell, Cocytus, and the player is the sole human summoned by Lord Diavolo, Prince of the Devildom, to cast judgment on him who was once God's most beloved. To do that, you'll meet Lucifer and the other brothers in the Obey Me! cast, then decide the story's outcome with a single, final choice. 

That framing is a significant contrast to the typical gameplay loop of Obey Me!, which is a gacha-supported dating sim-style game that allows players to have their pick of the boys to text and interact with, as well as ogle in a rhythm game component.

Though Sinner's Choice is a bit of a new development for Obey Me! series, NTT Solmare itself is no stranger to the otome scene. The two Obey Me! games themselves are actually the survivors of the once-expansive Shall We Date? franchise, which spanned seven games across iOS, Android, and Facebook for more than a decade before everything but the Obey Me! titles were shuttered last year.

As for Good Smile Company's involvement, while they may be better known for figure lines like Figma and Pop Up Parade, or from placement on many anime production committees, GSC has dabbled in video game publishing as well. In fact, some of the recent game-related announcements from GSC include a 3D action game based on Mobile Police Patlabor, and Nekopara Sekai Connect, an upcoming mobile spin-off of the catgirl-themed Nekopara series.

It remains to be seen how much of Obey Me!'s current fandom will be willing to branch out onto PC to get their dose of Lucifer, but the announcement has already kicked off a mini-round of discussion on Twitter and Bluesky from folks annoyed that the game's store page on Steam includes the "otome" content tag. Said critics take issue with the classification, claiming that the term should be used exclusively for games that feature a female-identifying protagonist with male love interests. Obey Me! games allow the player to choose their pronouns, making the game optionally yuri or Boys' Love, depending on the player's preference, and, as the reasoning goes, disqualifying Obey Me! games from the otome classification (despite NTT Solmare's marketing). As of press time, the tag on Steam for Sinner's Choice has since been changed to "Romance," more or less mooting the issue.

Meanwhile, in more three-dimensional scenes, Love and Deepspace also saw an update that should attract fans of Caleb. The game's latest update has deployed a new playable variant of the character, Caleb: Netherlord. Caleb first joined the romance-able roster as a fighter pilot-turned-space navy officer, but this latest version is fantasy-themed with him and the main character cast as mystic beings banishing malevolent spirits.

Speaking of exorcising spirits, the reaction to the introduction of Caleb: Netherlord has stirred up some ghosts of its own, specifically relating to his portrayal in Love and Deepspace's English-language edition. See, in the game's Chinese script, as well as in the Korean and Japanese-language localizations, Caleb is portrayed as the main character's adoptive elder brother, raised alongside them by their mutual guardian/grandmother figure, Josephine. 

By contrast, the English-language script of Love and Deepspace recasts Caleb and the main character as "childhood friends." It appears InFold has opted to buck this trend with Caleb: Netherworld's story scenes, with dialog between the main character and Caleb openly using sibling identifiers like "big brother" and "baby sister." It's a bold move with some unfortunate timing, considering that the mainstream of gaming culture is still roiling back and forth over the portrayal of Alex's story mode in Street Fighter 6.

That move seems to have divided opinion among Love and Deepspace fans. Some were, to put it plainly, grossed out by the implication of an "incestuous" relationship between Caleb and the protagonist, and criticized InFold for indulging the titillating nature of such relationships. 

Others were happy that Caleb's portrayal in the new Myth aligns more closely with the source material, having seen the "childhood friend" reframing in the English localization as unnecessary. Caleb's stories already tread in problematic territory with regard to portrayed consent, and many players were fully aware that InFold had opted to soften some of the edges for the English edition. As such, the new stories not shying away from those portrayals felt, by that reasoning, more on-brand for the problematic fave.

Huge Layoffs Hit Epic, Smaller Layoffs Hit Sony

People losing their jobs seems to be the story of the game industry at this point, with every month for the last couple of years bringing news of companies, large and small, shedding staff and upending workers' livelihoods. The latest round within our mobile-centric scope concerns the futures of Fortnite maker Epic Games and Sony, particularly its mobile development-focused arm. 

Epic's layoffs were significantly larger in scale, with over 1,000 people losing their jobs, according to a note posted by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. According to Sweeney, the rationale was related to a "downturn in Fortnite engagement" and "industry-wide challenges" throughout 2025. In other words, the company is spending more than it's making, due in part to declines in player spending on Fortnite (the company's main cash cow), a tough economy in general, and slowing growth across every industry. That's a bleak picture to paint, considering that Fortnite brings in billions of dollars a year in revenue and is still one of the most popular games in the world on any platform. 

You'd be forgiven for thinking that with this framing, it's all down to a bad economy, but it's not the entire story. In his note, Sweeney alludes obliquely to the fact that Epic has spent eye-watering amounts of money in a costly court battle against Apple and Google, one that Epic has seemingly come out ahead in, in that the settlements that ended it have forced Google and Apple to allow alternative payment options and lower their cuts of app-related revenue (once pegged at 30%). Whether Sweeney is right in characterizing Epic's effort as the "vanguard" in a battle just in its early days of paying off, the main concrete result for average folks has been the return of Fortnite to the App Store and Google Play Store (you needed to employ some roundabout methods to install Fortnite on your phone or tablet while the court fight was going on). According to Sweeney, Fortnite's lack of presence on Apple and Google's "official" app marketplaces has reduced its overall revenue by potentially billions of dollars, so it'll be worth seeing if a glorious return to mobile primacy is in the cards for the game - and for Epic.

Even if one were to distrust Epic's framing here, it does say something about the state of things that even one of the most successful games in the world is seemingly just keeping its head above water. In light of that, it's no wonder that so few new live service titles, mobile and otherwise, seem to be finding lasting success, axed almost as soon as it becomes evident to the money men that they won't be "The Next Big Thing," or the "Fortnite-killer."

Another company in pursuit of The Next Big Thing in live service and mobile gaming is Sony, which laid off about 50 staff from the PlayStation Studios Business Group at the end of March, including members of the Mobile division. Sony didn't detail which teams and departments were impacted by the cuts, but Mobilegamer.biz reported that several of its upcoming mobile projects, including the soft-launched MLB The Show Mobile and Ratchet and Clank: Ranger Rumble, are continuing development. 

The last few years have seen Sony step back from its aggressive mobile and live service game ambitions, ignominiously cancelling several console projects (most infamously Concord, which was shut down mere weeks after a splashy launch) and shuttering studios, including ones working on unannounced "AAA mobile titles" like Neon Koi. Its partnership-based endeavors have borne more fruit, though, with the NetEase-managed Destiny: Rising making it out of the gate and seemingly continuing in quiet health. NCSoft is also working on Horizon: Steel Frontiers, a mobile-first MMORPG based on the "robot dinosaurs" setting of the Horizon games.

@poc@lypse Indic@tor? Bandai Namco opens official The IDOLM@STER English Accounts

Depending on how long you've been around, Bandai Namco's latest move is either mildly unexpected or so long overdue that one has to wonder what year it is. On March 30th, the company opened an official English-language online presence for The IDOLM@STER franchise on Twitter. In the days since, the account has posted regularly, linking music videos hosted on the official YouTube channels and running capsule profiles of the different games in the franchise.

If you're wondering why some fans might see this relatively minor move as a big deal, it's that it should be noted that, except for the iOS-based Idolmaster Shiny Festa rhythm games in 2013, no Idolmaster game has ever seen an English-language release. 

Keep in mind that Bandai Namco has not confirmed in any way that it's planning a global release for any Idolmaster game. For all we know, this could simply be a promotional push related to the presence of Idolmaster performers from 765PRO and Million Live at Anime Central in May, and nothing more. The series has gained plenty of international fans thanks to the anime adaptations, making it overseas reliably. Nevertheless, the simple acknowledgment of the games' history has added heat to the torch many Im@s fans have carried for years.

One of the main speculative rationales for Bandai Namco never seeing fit to bring Idolmaster games overseas relates to the relatively niche quality of the subject matter. Beyond being about Japanese idols, the core Idolmaster games have been text-heavy affairs with a general "raising" based structure that wasn't guaranteed to hit with enough overseas players to justify the localization burden. Hence why Shiny Festa, a comparatively simple rhythm game series with a linear story, made the cut when virtually no other game did. Idolmaster Cinderella Girls got some acknowledgement as well, courtesy of showing up in several Granblue Fantasy crossover events, but other than that, Bandai Namco has done little to make overseas players feel invited to the idol party.

Some have theorized that the sight of Cygames' Umamusume: Pretty Derby hitting it big may have clued in Bandai Namco to the receptiveness of audiences and spurred Bandai Namco to action. Umamusume's core gameplay loop is raising-based, and the whole game shares several commonalities with Idolmaster, ranging from the raising gameplay and idol music to sharing voice acting talent across various characters. The voice actor lineup for Umamusume reads like an alumni list for Idolmaster characters, as well, and eagle-eyed fans have noticed several dance and visual references in Umamusume that are clearly inspired by Idolmaster (or perhaps Cygames' work with Cinderella Girls).

Let's assume that Bandai Namco is genuinely serious about sending these idols across the pond. Which game might make it over? I'd wager it'll be QualiArts-developed Gakuen Idolmaster (a.k.a. Idolmaster Academy), the newest mobile game in the series. The game casts players as producers in the newly-formed Idol Department of Hatsuboshi Academy, a girls' school full of aspiring performers. 

It's got the advantage of starting with a fresh cast and setting, and should be easy to pick up for players who've been introduced to Umamusume, as it's also a training-based game where players attempt multiple roguelike-style "runs" attempting to produce an optimized idol. Amusingly, Gakuen Idolmaster leans into the charm of failure, where poor runs result in your trainee idol flubbing her lines or straight-up singing poorly in her performances, adding to the sense of authenticity (and amping up the thrill of an ideal result, conversely). 

It's also worth saying that Gakuen Idolmaster is also gacha-supported, adding the chance of the game hitting it big overseas like Umamusume did and becoming a regular revenue stream for Bandai Namco. By comparison, the most recent console title, Starlit Season, is almost five years old. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a localized "remaster" of some of the older games, but those wouldn't be the games that'd give The Idolmaster a global foothold, at least not in the short term.

At any rate, Bandai Namco hasn't made any announcements either way, so it's more about waiting, seeing, and hoping, for now.

Let's close out this fortnight's installment with a few smaller bits of news:

• Fate/Grand Order launched its crossover/anniversary event with famed Type-Moon visual novel Witch on the Holy Night (a.k.a. Mahoyo), with the event running through April 19, 2026. With new events come new playable characters, and players can net a Servant version of Sizuki Soujyuro for free when they play. They'll also be able to burn some Saint Quartz in pursuit of Aozaki Aoko, a 5-Star Foreigner-class Servant, and Kuonji Alice, a 5-Star Caster-class. 
• Bethesda has delisted 2019 mobile RPG The Elder Scrolls: Blades from relevant app stores, and an in-game announcement seen by Reddit users confirmed the game's closure by June 30, 2026. Notably, Bethesda and Microsoft have not made any wider announcement as to the game's fate, quietly taking down the game's official website (which now links to an error page). The shutdown follows the 2025 closure of digital card battler The Elder Scrolls: Legends, leaving management sim The Elder Scrolls: Castles as the remaining extant mobile title come July 2026.
• CAPCOM has opened registration for a 2nd closed beta test of Monster Hunter Outlanders. Unlike 2023's Monster Hunter Now, which was developed by Niantic and used real-life location data much in the manner of Pokémon Go, Outlanders is being developed by TiMi Studio Group and is more of an open-world MMO-esque spin-off that throws in base-building, survival mechanics, multiplayer co-op, and gacha monetization to unlock hunting companions. The new test will feature larger maps and new playable characters, though the release date is as yet unannounced.
• Ubisoft has launched The Division Resurgence, a mobile adaptation of The Division, Massive Entertainment's third-person post-apocalyptic military shooter. The game takes place as a sort of prequel to the original Division game, casting its players as members of the first wave of sleeper agents sent in to secure New York City after a deadly plague is unleashed on it. Resurgence adapts the third-person cover shooter gameplay and loot-based gear collection to mobile devices, though it includes adaptations for players to use Bluetooth gamepads and even console controllers like the PS5's DualSense.

That'll be it for me this time. I'm writing this draft in the midst of the easter holidays, and I plan to spend this bit of leisure time I've got clocking in at the Lose Everything Factory (a.k.a. Marathon's Cryo Archive map) in between node-clears of the FGO event. See you again soon!