Former Microsoft waifu "returns," and you can invite her on dates in this game

Microsoft throughout its history has offered a multitude of products and services, some of which ceased operation. One of them had a waifu as a mascot or brand ambassador, who unfortunately disappeared after the service's closure but will soon return, and you can go on dates with her.

The COUCOUGEMU studio announced the start of the pre-registration campaign for Hoshiko Sanran: Secret Love, a new romance simulation title starring the young Hoshiko. In this game, players can go on dates with this heroine and experience different scenarios based on the role they adopt and the time of day in which they take place.

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Who is the former Microsoft mascot Hikaru Aizawa?

An interesting aspect of this title is that the protagonist is a waifu who became the official image or mascot of Microsoft Silverlight, a web application framework that included multimedia functions such as video playback, vector graphics, animations, and interactivity, similar to what Adobe Flash does.

The virtual character was originally named Hikaru Aizawa and was designed by Microsoft Taiwan to be the ambassador for the browser extension Silverlight. From 2014, she became the image of the Microsoft Azure service. However, this came to an end in 2021 when Silverlight ceased its service due to lack of popularity. Hikaru Aizawa was then forgotten.

Nevertheless, the team that created the character separated from Microsoft and founded COUCOUGEMU, which launched Hoshiko Sanran: Secret Love as a crowdfunding project on the ZecZec (Taiwanese) and Makuake (Japanese) platforms, both of which were successful.

Technically speaking, the protagonist of Hoshiko Sanran: Secret Love is not the Aizawa Hikaru we know but a kind of spiritual successor renamed Hoshiko, as indicated by 4Gamer.

The bad news is that the mobile game is currently confirmed for release in China and Japan and will only support the languages of these nations. It is unknown if there are plans for the game to reach the Western market.

In case you missed it: Programmer created his ideal waifu with AI, became obsessed, and his girlfriend forced him to delete it.

What do you think of the spiritual successor to Aizawa Hikaru? Tell us in the comments.

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