BODY: If you've ever wanted to build a sprawling high school from a single classroom—complete with quirky clubs, star athletes, and the occasional celebrity graduate—now is the time, and the price is right: nothing.
Kairosoft announced on July 3 that the iOS and Android versions of Pocket Academy 2 (known in Japan as Meimon Pocket Gakuin 2) are free to download for a limited period. The Android giveaway runs until 8:59 a.m. JST on July 11. The iOS window wasn't spelled out in the announcement, but it will almost certainly close at the same time.
Pocket Academy 2 is a sequel to one of Kairosoft's most beloved school-management titles. Players design campus layouts, place facilities, recruit students, and nurture them through sports, exams, and club activities, watching their tiny pixelated academy blossom into an elite institution over in-game years. It carries the studio's signature loop of numbers-go-up satisfaction wrapped in charming retro art.
The free offer is a classic Kairosoft move: the Osaka-based developer periodically runs limited-time giveaways on individual mobile titles, often to spotlight a catalog that now spans dozens of pocket-sized simulation games. Grabbing the game during the promotion means you keep it permanently, even after the free window ends.
The insider take
Kairosoft occupies a peculiar niche in Japan's game scene—a small, fiercely independent studio whose deceptively simple management sims have quietly built a global cult following through years of App Store word-of-mouth. From Tokyo, these free-download campaigns read less like desperation and more like a savvy retention play: hook players with one free title, and the studio's cross-promotion between games does the rest. For newcomers curious about the "Kairo-like" genre that inspired countless indie imitators, a free Pocket Academy 2 is the ideal entry point.
Originally reported by AUTOMATON (Japanese).