When a gacha game starts rerunning its ENTIRE banner history, you know things are dire. Uma Musume Pretty Derby's Chinese server just shattered whatever copium its players had left with a single announcement.
On March 1st, the official account posted a notice to all 'Trainers' (the game's term for players): due to 'unfinished technical upgrades,' the new training scenario 'Youth Cup' — originally scheduled for March 4th — along with all related gacha banners and anniversary missions, would be indefinitely delayed. The announcement was peppered with apologies and promises to notify players 'as soon as possible.' A textbook 'our hands are tied' corporate letter if there ever was one.
So what do you do when you can't ship new content? You rerun everything. And I mean EVERYTHING — every story event and gacha banner from launch through February 26th, 2024, all replayed in 7-day cycles with matching character and support card banners. As a 'compensation,' each rerun support card banner comes with one free 10-pull. The rerun schedule stretches all the way to late March.
Compensation adjustments also tell a story: the half-anniversary free daily single pull was converted into daily ticket drops with no expiration, while the big-ticket second wave activities — including a guaranteed SSR banner and discounted packs — were pushed to 'after the new version launches,' which is code for 'indefinitely.'
The community reaction boiled down to three words: it's cooked. One top-voted comment nailed it — 'Rerunning every banner? That's end-of-service level stuff.' Another highly-liked reply pointed out this isn't just about falling behind the Japanese version's content pace: 'The game can't even update its client anymore.' The app was already pulled from Chinese app stores, and now it can't push version updates at all. It's essentially running on life support. Players expressed shock: 'They're still operating even though they can't update? First time I've ever seen this.'
The prevailing theory in the comments points to regulatory issues rather than actual technical problems. One player analyzed it as 'looks like it got blocked by the censors, can't push the new version.' Given the game's previous delisting from app stores, this explanation carries significant weight. Others lamented the absurdity: 'A game this wholesome getting stuck in "technical upgrades" for this long — the Chinese gaming environment is truly something.' Another quipped, 'Every gacha that comes to the CN server gets punched by the iron fist sooner or later.' (铁拳/iron fist is slang for regulatory crackdown.)
One detail cuts especially deep: Japanese server players had previously mocked the idea of 'CN player copium moments' in discussion videos — and now that fantasy has become grim reality. The parallels with Bilibili's track record are impossible to ignore. Bilibili previously ran the CN server of Princess Connect Re:Dive (PCR) into similar operational struggles, and players are asking, 'Does Bilibili even have a game that's doing well?' From PCR to Uma Musume, Bilibili's track record with Japanese gacha localization seems cursed — these games consistently struggle with China's unique regulatory and operational landscape.
Right now, Uma Musume CN exists in an absurd limbo: still technically 'operating' but unable to update, unable to relist on app stores, kept alive only by cycling through old content. The official promise to 'do everything possible to complete the technical upgrade' is met with near-universal skepticism. One player already ghostwrote the next announcement: 'Is the next step going to be "we deeply regret to inform you"?' In the Chinese gacha community, that phrase is basically the standard opening line of a shutdown notice. This feels like only the beginning of the countdown.
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