Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, the popular mobile game from Glu Mobile, will be shutting down in April, just shy of its 10th anniversary in June. When you launch the free-to-play mobile game, you'll now get a notification announcing that in-app purchases have been disabled beforehand Kim Kardashian: HollywoodThe closing date of April 8. A Glu Mobile representative at the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood forum confirmed that the game has been removed from the app storesbut it will still be playable until April 8 for people who have already downloaded it.
Kim Kardashian told TMZ that she is “forever inspired” by the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood community. “I am so grateful from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has loved and played Kim Kardashian: Hollywood in the past 10 years. This journey has meant so much to me, but I've realized it's time to focus that energy on other passions. I would like to thank the Glu team and the many people behind the scenes who worked hard to make it a success.”
Here is the statement from Glu Mobile:
I would like to take this opportunity to share some news with you all. We decided on sunset Kim Kardashian: Hollywood — as of today, the game will no longer offer in-app purchases, it will also be removed from all app stores and will no longer be available for download. Players who already have the game installed on their devices can continue playing Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and use all existing virtual currencies in the game until April 8, 2024. After April 8, 2024, the game will be inaccessible to all players.
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Kim Kardashian: Hollywood was released as a free mobile game on June 24, 2014. Kardashian wasn't necessarily the star of the game; the main character was a player-created character. Over the course of the game, Kardashian would help the player character become an A-list celebrity, as they would start at the very bottom of the E-list (yikes!). The player character can book acting and modeling jobs, go on dates, and make public appearances. Fashion and unlocking outfits also played a big role in the game. Like other free to play games, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood had its own in-game currency, K-Stars, which was used to purchase clothing and accessories, and to speed up the wait times between actions. In short, it was a game where Kardashian became your mentor in a campy, casual game that played up the allure of fame and drama.
Former CEO of Glu Mobile Niccolo De Masi told the Wall Street Journal in 2014 that Kardashian was quite involved in the development and approved all the clothing in the game. “She and I probably exchanged three emails a day and chatted weekly. She has approved every item of clothing (used in the game), we discuss features, we discuss events, updates and so on,” De Masi said. “She went through all the (production) milestones, from alpha to beta, the final golden master. It was something she noticed quite quickly; the strength of its brand and social following would probably be a great fit for this type of game.
Image: Glu Mobile
Initially some critics refused at the idea of a Kim Kardashian video game. But Kim Kardashian: Hollywood became a big hit in 2014, where it generated $1.6 million in revenue in five days. It quickly topped the mobile games charts and as of 2016 it had reportedly made $156 million in sales – and it continued to bring in millions in the years that followed. To put that in context, the profits in one quarter of 2014 were the profits for more than 10 Glu Mobile games combined.
Certainly, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood wasn't revolutionary in terms of its gameplay model, but it was used to be one of those hugely successful games that centered – and marketed – women. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood wasn't the first game to tap into the female video game market, but its success brought that market to the forefront of the conversation, allowing players to take on a different role than the white male protagonist typical of popular video games of the 2010s. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood made Polygon's list of games that defined the past decade: “More importantly, it paved the way for an entire genre of games that didn't exist for easy consumption before this decade,” wrote entertainment reporter Petrana Radulovic. Other than that, it was just a satisfying mobile game.
Therefore Kim Kardashian: Hollywood has maintained a dedicated player base all these years, a group that foresaw its closure at the end of 2023 when Glu Mobile did not announce a new season. Heck, a day before the announcement, one player started a petition to revive the game. The Kim Kardashian: Hollywood The Reddit page was robbed and it makes sense: this is a game that people have been playing and invested in for a decade. There are still several months to go before the game is officially shut down – so plenty of time to plan an outfit for the game's funeral, as some players are already doing.
Glu Mobile tried it Kim Kardashian: Hollywood formula with a bunch of other celebrities, including Kardashian siblings Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Gordon Ramsay, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. (Taylor Swift's Game, The fast life, Closed 2019.) Polygon has contacted Electronic Arts, which acquired Glu Mobile in 2021 to capitalize on the success of mobile games, for more information.