Link! Like! Love Live! Game Developer Odd Number Files for Bankruptcy – News

Credit research company Tokyo Shoko Research (TSR) reported on Thursday that game development company Odd Number and two related companies filed for bankruptcy in the Tokyo District Court on August 5. Odd Number had 10,320,780,000 yen (about US$64.71 million) in liabilities as of December 2024, while the two related companies are under investigation.

Odd Number is best known as the developer for Link! Like! Love Live!, the smartphone game app for the Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jōgakuin School Idol Club (Hasu no Sora Girls’ School Idol Club) “virtual school idol” project. The game launched in April 2023, and ended service on June 30.

The Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jōgakuin School Idol Club spinoff of the Love Live! franchise is notable among the franchise‘s spinoffs for featuring a storyline that progresses with a real-time calendar, and is accessible primarily through Odd Number’s Link! Like! Love Live! game. Characters advance their stories in the game in real-time, and have even graduated from the in-story school and exited the main story (which coincides with the “graduation” of the the real-life idols/voice actresses that portray them). The game also streamed live concerts and talk sessions, hosted an idol-training card game, and offered other forms of content that guided the real-time story of the game.

TSR noted that the game had high operating costs for Odd Number, and the game led to a 5,605,290,000 yen (about US$35.14 million) loss for the company by December 2023, which led the company to be 6,821,880,000 yen (about US$42.77 million) in debt at that point.

The company continued to operate the game amid such losses, and it eventually led to business partners getting a provisional attachment from December 2025 to March 2026 on Odd Number’s headquarters, which also served as the residence of the company’s president. 

The Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jogakuin School Idol Club Bloom Garden Party 3D anime film opened in theaters in Japan on May 8. The film follows the final day before graduation of the 103rd class at the Hasu no Sora Girls’ Academy.

The project will get a television anime series that will premiere in January 2027.

A manga launched in Shueisha‘s Ultra Jump magazine in November 2023.

The Love Live! school idol franchise launched in 2010 and has since spawned the Love Live! Sunshine!!, Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, Love Live! Superstar!! and most recently, Ikizu Live! Love Live! Bluebird project spinoffs.

Source: Tokyo Shoko Research X/Twitter account via Hachima Kikō