Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! is a massively popular mobile game world wide, with as many fans as it has it's bound to have a Broken Base over certain topics, gone into detail here:
- The event pacing of the game invited debates on it. For context, events are released near-constantly, with typically less than four days between the end of an event and the start of a new one. Some are ok with the events rate release as it gives more content for characters, but there are people who thinks the breakneck event schedule is too much for themnote .
- There has been quite a bit of pushback from fans of the Cryptons characters due to their treatment as characters compared to the original generation, as they've been largely Out of Focus. As it currently stands, their roles are primarily to support the SEKAI characters, which has been reflected in their dialogue, motivations, commissioned songs or covers (in which they often have the least amount of sung lines), and their increasingly minor event appearances. As of the game's first year, there hasn't been an event that focused on the Virtual Singers alone, as every event is centered on the struggles of the SEKAI characters while the Virtual Singers are usually relegated to acting as mentors or being involved in less important background shenanigans. Some fans argue that this is expected, since the Virtual Singers are still meant to be seen as interpretative characters, and thusly giving them too much spotlight or development as characters can result in fans who have their own interpretation of the characters reacting negatively. Others argue that there is no justification for their shafting extending to even songs, and that the advertising suggested that they would play bigger roles, rather than simply being the Advertised Extras they appear to be in the game itself.
- Whether the creators have shown preferential treatment toward certain units, scenarios, attributes or characters has been vehemently debated since the early days of the game's launch, to the point where it launched a "Balance" meme that is used in various situations to describes scenarios that either places a character "balance"-wise in an unfavorable position, such as being given too many cards of the same attribute, which makes them less useful in events that require a specific attribute they have less cards in or none of, or causes them to be shafted in a way that benefits a character that has apparently received more attention than them from the developers. The fact that developers had addressed this apparent issue in an early interview hasn't helped matters, as claims that they are still biased persist.
- News that Colorful Palette will no longer be trying to balance the songs
has brought up old wounds for fans of KAITO and MEIKO and for the Vocaloid community at large. Because of Miku's overwhelming popularity, as well as the popularity of the second generation of Crypton's characters as a whole (Save for Luka, who usually gets left out of these arguments for one reason or another), MEIKO and KAITO have consistently been put on the back burner by Colorful Palette (And Crypton) despite them having plenty of dedicated fans themselves and plenty of songs for Colorful Palette to choose from. Many fans argue that without them, Miku and the other virtual singers would not exist. Colorful Palette prioritizing the other virtual singers and the less popular members will be aiming for a minimum of two songs each year, despite their previous statements, has left fans feeling dissatisfied at best and angry at worst. Kondo's poorly-worded original statement, which had him say something along the lines of "wanting to add songs that colored Vocaloid history" only exacerbated the situation, leading others to assume that he meant that KAITO and MEIKO didn't contribute anything. It had gotten so bad that KAITO (primarily) and MEIKO trended for days, and Word of God had to clarify the point that was made in the official Project message post. Additionally, news of this also reached Naoto Fuga, KAITO's voice provider, who expressed deep sadness at the news which further rallied fans against the decision. - In the West, the topic of Mizuki's gender continues to generate massive amounts of controversy, with many fans having their own interpretations due to the game's deliberate ambiguity. It's so bad that the game's fan-created English wiki had to lock editing on their character page to avoid edit wars. COLORFUL STAGE deciding to Take the Third Option with pronoun usage regarding Mizuki, as in the characters using pronouns that allude to how they interpret Mizuki's gender, has garnered a mixed reaction as well, with some criticizing this move and claiming it would simply be easier to use "They/Them" as it offers the same sense of ambiguity that's present in the Japanese version of the game. Others argue in return that using "They/Them" would imply to more extreme fans that Mizuki is nonbinary, thusly adding fuel to their campaign to enforce gender-neutral pronoun usage for Mizuki in the fanbase rather than leaving it up in the air for everyone to interpret freely.
- The SEKAI covers or the Virtual Singer versions? Some fans prefer the SEKAI covers because they're sung by real-life human singers as opposed to synthetic voices and argue the group-based nature of the SEKAI covers gives them greater energy and vocal versatility than the Virtual Singer versions do, while others greatly prefer the Virtual Singer versions since they're closer to the producer's vision and have a unique sound that can't be recreated with human vocals, on top of being more like what they expect from a Hatsune Miku game. While many fans like both versions for different reasons, debates over which tracks are better can get heated. This also ties into the Fandom Rivalry between Sekai fans and Vocaloid fans, and into the greater debate on if vocal synthesizers are a suitable alternative to human singers, despite the game supporting the existence and importance of the Virtual Singers.
- In the Westnote , the concept of the Vivid BAD SQUAD sparks some debates in the fanbase. Due to the group uniquely being comprised of two subunits, some feel like it put limitations on who can sing cover songs as it can only be either: the entire group, Vivids (An and Kohane), or the BAD DOGS (Akito and Toya) with no crossover until Vivid BAD SQUAD Archives was introduced. That said, this is more of an issue with mixed-gender units in general since male and female covers are virtually nonexistent in the game outside of Another Vocals even in Wonderlands x Showtime as they currently have one (with Rin and Len in it). The male Virtual Singers also have yet to get a SEKAI cover with the female members of any unit. Despite this fact, western fans still blame Vivid BAD SQUAD's lack of a cohesive feel and lack of mixed-gender covers on the subunits. The subunit nature also sparks a bit of a Fandom Rivalry between a few Vivids and BAD DOGS fans who get upset if they think one unit is getting more in-game attention than the other.
- News of the event Revival my Dream not being adapted into the global release of the game has the fandom divided. On one side, there are fans that consider the supposed "natives vs colonizers" theme in the play Wonderlands x Showtime puts on in the event—along with the card set—harmful and insensitive to native/indigenous culture and representation and thus are very glad for its cancellation. On the other side, fans are upset because this event dives into crucial parts of Rui's backstory and provides character development that will be completely glossed over in the global version, leaving plot holes and an incomplete story for the unit. They also disagree with the other side's perception of the play, pointing out that the play is actually a story about setting aside differences and prejudices and considering its cancellation to be censorship. This decision has even been a dealbreaker for some, causing them to either cancel their subscriptions or leave the server altogether. SEGA's current refusal of direct public response and giving no alternative to the event's story further exacerbates this, leaving the side opposed agitated at the prospect that their feedback isn't being received and the side for the cancellation annoyed that people are still pushing for its reinstatement after the fact.
- SEGA's lack of addressing player complaints has escalated to involving other issues not being addressed such as the banning of accounts when purchasing the then faulty Beginner's Bundle which had previously been removed, recent in-game cheating, and the announcement of "Awake Now", the commissioned song for Bout for Beside You, not being added immediately. Additionally, while the outcry of Revival My Dream has died down, the official English Twitter account has taken to banning those who mention the event in their comments which adds to the established discontent.
- Revelation of the global server not having a dedicated English department like the other servers do for their versions. While many players already felt as though their feedback hasn't been heard, the knowledge that their feedback has to be translated before it reaches the Japanese developers have only compounded the issue, leaving players feeling as though they're the lowest priority and that is why the global version of the game is inferior.
- While many fans rejoiced at the announcement that the character's storylines would progress in the third year anniversary and that with it everyone would move up a grade, people are divided on the idea that this may mean the introduction of new units to fill in the gaps left by the charactersnote and what that will mean for the current cast given the state that game is in. Some are in favor of it, as they want to learn about new characters and see more SEKAI beyond the ones that currently exist in the game. On the other side, many point out that we still haven't really gotten to know the characters that are currently in the game despite how much time has passed since their stories have begun due to the slow progression of story arcs and how some characters having their backstories left unexplored. There are also players pointing out how the games already unbalanced state may become even more so with attempts to catch up the potential new characters with the original cast, or how introducing new characters in an already established cast usually doesn't work out in long-running Gacha games, usually said in reference to Love Live! and BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!.
- Word of God went on to make a statement clarifying that there won't be any new units introduced during the third anniversary but that new units would be added eventually.
- The Genre Roulette nature of the unit's songs and covers despite every unit being assigned a music genre as a base for their concepts. Some fans like it, feeling as though it diversifies the group's discography instead of pigeon-holing them into a specific sound, and that as long as the lyrics fit the singers to some degree it should work, while others argue that the sound, vibe, and lyrics should be considered more when songs are given to certain groups, especially after MORE MORE JUMP!, the idol group that's supposed to sing songs to bring hope to their listeners, ended up getting songs like "Darling Dance" and "Shoujo Rei", the former of which sounds cutesy and cheery but is actually about a mentally ill Attention Whore and the latter being about a ghost that lures another girl to her death on the train tracks. It did not help that both songs were wishlist songs that fans wanted for 25-ji Nightcord de. (more specifically with the former being wanted for Ena, who fit the lyrics to a degree, and the latter for Mafuyu and Kanade), the unit which is vastly more popular, and thusly caused both a bit of controversy when those two songs were "stolen" from them.
- This issue was only exacerbated when Wonderlands x Showtime covered the song "Rabu ka?" by Hiiragi Kirai, which fans can't decide if it fits the Wonderlands x Showtime or 25-ji Nightcord de. more. Some argue that it does fit Wonderlands x Showtime because of its nonsensical lyrics and funky tune, while others argue that it fits Nightcord due to its darker theme. When the cover ended up being controversial because of Emu, primarily, and Nene's vocals not fitting the vibe of the song, it only made more people come out in favor of saying that 25-ji Nightcord de. should have been the group chosen to cover the song.
- Related to the above, another camp argues that Nightcord shouldn't be the unit that gets assigned all the darker songs due to potential pigeon-holing and that the other units should be allowed to cover dark songs as well, while others argue back that pigeon-holing aside, this is just another extension of the problem with diversifying genres too much, and that Colorful Palette might just ignore the units base music genres altogether one day, potentially leading to the game's Girl Band Leo/need putting down their signature instruments in a 3DMV and starting to dance instead.
- Kanade/Mafuyu is a contentious ship amongst the fandom. Critics towards the ship argue that their extreme emotional co-dependency on each other for selfish gains has many signs of a toxic relationship, while their supporters argue that seeing both Kanade and Mafuyu slowly develop beyond that and starting to genuinely appreciate being around the other is precisely the point.
- With the announcement that "Childish War" would be covered by Wonderlands x Showtime, many were upset because they wanted the Shinonome siblings to cover it, even though Word of God has stated that cross-unit covers are reserved for special occassions. Some argue that they still have the right to be upset as the song perfectly fits Ena and Akito since it is about two siblings bickering, something which they are known for. However some agree that it also fits Nene and Tsukasa even though they aren't siblings, due to the latter often being the target of Nene's snark, and their overall dynamic coming off as a sort of Friendly Rivalry.
- The inclusion of charts that require more than two fingers at once has inspired more vocal controversy from the English speaking side of the playerbase. The argument against them is that by design they gatekeep casual players out of playable content because of the inherently higher skill floor required to use more than two fingers at once; it also alienates players who predominantly play on their smartphones because attempting to use more than two fingers or thumbs on a small device is difficult. The argument for them is that this was an inevitability given the game's Nintendo Hard nature and Colorful Palette's desire to continue pushing the maximum limits of the game's difficulty, meaning that they'd have hit the upper limit of what's possible with two-finger charts sooner or later; in addition, casual players aren't the target audience for the content anyway exactly because of the higher skill floor and as such there's no real reason to hold the game back.
- The UI change implemented in the 3rd Anniversary has been rather divisive in the fandom, particularly on the EN side. While some people like the more streamlined and modern appearance, a lot of people think it's very dull for a game called Colorful Stage, and lacks the life it used to have.
- The 3D graphics update has also been incredibly divisive. While most people agree on the fact the 3D models look a lot better, the way M Vs are now lit has the fanbase divided. On one side, some people like how much more dynamic and bright the lighting is, but on the other side, some people think it's too bright, and that the intense lighting doesn't fit some songs, mainly outlining the updated ''IDSMILE'' MV for replacing the soft lighting that fit with the tone of the song with much bolder and more saturated lighting.
- The 3D graphics update has also been incredibly divisive. While most people agree on the fact the 3D models look a lot better, the way M Vs are now lit has the fanbase divided. On one side, some people like how much more dynamic and bright the lighting is, but on the other side, some people think it's too bright, and that the intense lighting doesn't fit some songs, mainly outlining the updated ''IDSMILE'' MV
