NEWS
Lunime, maker of popular games Gacha Life and Gacha Club, will be shutting down
Gacha Life, which was popular with children around the world, allowed you to make your own character and hang out with your friends, and was designed for children ages 8-11.
Lunime, known for their popular Gacha games including Gacha Studios, Gacha Life, and Gacha Club, has announced today that their company would shut down on August 30th, 2020, due to the game being removed from app stores worldwide. This was caused by complaints from parents that the game had inappropriate content.
James Thomas, an LGBTQ+ supporter, was outraged when he saw his younger daughters making disturbing content with the app. "It was horrific. My children were making videos where their characters would have sex with each other. How is this game targeted to children?" said the father of 7.
Melissa Williamson, a mother of 3, was shocked when she saw her children being violent to other characters in videos that they later uploaded to YouTube. "It was shocking to see." said Williamson in an interview with BBC News. "My children were using their characters to assault people who had constructive criticism against them. And even worse, there were so many likes on the video. People actually like this content."
Rachel White learned about Gacha Life's not so innocent nature when her 12-year-old daughter showed a video that she made of a character doing inappropriate sex scenes that was posted to the popular app TikTok. "I was horrified when I saw that video that she made. When I told her why she did it, she said that these videos were becoming popular on TikTok and she wanted some of the fame. I took her devices away from her, and she was crying for a month."
Lunime sent a statement to BBC News, stating that "Children's safety is our top priority. We decided to shut down our company as we believed it was the best option to avoid more complaints from parents."
Another game from Lunime, known as Gacha Club, was already released on Android and had a planned release for iOS, but this has since been canceled.
James Thomas, an LGBTQ+ supporter, was outraged when he saw his younger daughters making disturbing content with the app. "It was horrific. My children were making videos where their characters would have sex with each other. How is this game targeted to children?" said the father of 7.
Melissa Williamson, a mother of 3, was shocked when she saw her children being violent to other characters in videos that they later uploaded to YouTube. "It was shocking to see." said Williamson in an interview with BBC News. "My children were using their characters to assault people who had constructive criticism against them. And even worse, there were so many likes on the video. People actually like this content."
Rachel White learned about Gacha Life's not so innocent nature when her 12-year-old daughter showed a video that she made of a character doing inappropriate sex scenes that was posted to the popular app TikTok. "I was horrified when I saw that video that she made. When I told her why she did it, she said that these videos were becoming popular on TikTok and she wanted some of the fame. I took her devices away from her, and she was crying for a month."
Lunime sent a statement to BBC News, stating that "Children's safety is our top priority. We decided to shut down our company as we believed it was the best option to avoid more complaints from parents."
Another game from Lunime, known as Gacha Club, was already released on Android and had a planned release for iOS, but this has since been canceled.
