In an announcement that sounds almost like a misstep, the creators behind Visual Arts’ dark fantasy mobile game The False Alice have issued an apology for “reversing the suspension” of content updates. To clarify, after a three-year stretch with virtually no new content, The False Alice is finally set to receive fresh updates. However, the development team has chosen to apologize and distribute free in-game currency as a gesture of goodwill, much to the delight of players in Japan.
For context, the developers of The False Alice announced in July 2023 that they would cease releasing new content for the game. Unlike many live-service games, they did not shut down the game entirely. Instead, the servers have remained active as long as in-app purchase revenue covers operational expenses. To ensure this, Visual Arts introduced a live counter in the game that tracks all players’ in-game currency spending. They also disclosed the monthly cost to maintain the game, which was 1.95 million yen (approximately $13,600 USD at the time), covering cloud server fees, maintenance, and chat systems. Additionally, a “fundraising store” was added, allowing players to use gacha currency to directly support the game’s upkeep. Since then, the team has regularly updated players on whether the monthly server funding goal was met.
Given that The False Alice has been operating on a minimal budget for years, many players assumed an end-of-service announcement was imminent. Thus, the news of the upcoming “Valkyrias Saga” content update has come as a pleasant surprise. The reason behind the developers’ peculiar phrasing of a “suspension of suspension of updates” remains unclear, but it has undeniably generated significant buzz for the game.
Separately, The False Alice is getting a full-priced visual novel adaptation titled False Alice: Retold Tale, slated for release on Steam in the fall of 2026 with English support. The project was crowdfunded on CAMPFIRE, raising over $400,000, which was 1,283% of its initial goal. Similar to the mobile game’s main storyline, the upcoming title follows the journey of “Failures,” girls born during the creation of fairy tale protagonists, who strive to become “the real thing.”
The False Alice mobile game is available for iOS and Android in Japan.
Mido