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Japan's popular rhythm arcade series Idolmaster released as three $55 apps

Namco really outdoes Square this time.

Idolmaster, a popular series of rhythm games with an element of pop-star raising sim, has made its way west today as a trilogy of iOS apps that cost a whopping $54.99 each. Yes, each!

Published by Namco-Bandai, each of the three games - Harmonic Score, Melodic Disc and Rhythmic Record - is a port of a PSP trilogy originally release in October 2012 in Japan. The different episodes each feature different idols-in-training as the player is in charge of their performance.

Aside from costing a lot, each Idolmaster episode is a hefty download at roughly 2 GB each and close to 3 GB when installed. On the plus side, each app includes roughly 23 minutes of original animation, so that's roughly an hour of anime girls crooning for only $165.

We've contacted Namco to figure out why in the world these are so outlandishly expensive.

At least the DLC is free.