Japanese publisher G-Mode has recently announced that the physical edition of The Detective Kibukawa Ryosuke Case Tale series will be released for the Nintendo Switch in January next year. The title, originally developed for feature phones, is a part of the company’s “G-Mode Archives” series, a project aiming to preserve obsolete and unplayable mobile games and distribute them on major modern platforms like the Nintendo Switch and Steam. While the G-Mode Archives series primarily features digital re-releases, The Detective Kibukawa Ryosuke Case Tale series, first released digitally as part of the program, will launch as the company’s first physical edition.
In an interview with Harf-Way, G-Mode company director Koichi Takeshita and development director Yuuki Hata talked about their decision to bring the old mobile title back in a physical format. As the two developers explained, numerous requests from fans were what motivated them to try publishing a G-Mode Archives game physically, which is quite an unusual move coming from publishers who focus on digital video game preservation. “Digital downloads are the mainstream format now, but I personally feel like there is still a demand for games that you can physically hold in your hands. So, as a new challenge for our company, we decided to take a crack at physical versions as well,” Takeshita said.
The Detective Kibukawa Ryosuke Case Tale series was also highly requested, Hata added. Having experienced their favorite app disappear for good with no means of permanently owning it, it makes sense that gamers would prefer a physical edition that they can hold on to. “As [Detective Ryosuke Kibukawa] was originally made as a feature phone app, fans have gone through a period when the game was virtually unplayable. The passion of fans who experienced the game disappearing from their hands, and a demand for a game that can be physically kept was what inspired us to realize this project,” Hata explained.
Furthermore, physical games also hold sentimental value for many people, Takeshita notes. “We’ve received many responses saying that they’d prefer a physical edition over a digital download, especially from parents who want to gift their children a tangible memento. There seem to be many people who buy physical editions even if there’s a digital download available,” he said.
This eagerness to listen to fans won’t come as a surprise when you hear that Takeshita describes G-Mode as a “request-driven” company. Sometimes, the team members themselves are the ones who discover games and put them forward as candidates for publishing, but much more often, they get ideas directly from customers via X posts, for example. This makes it much easier for the publishers to understand players’ wishes and demands, and occasionally even leads them to discover new games they’d never heard of before.
With that in mind, the publishers explained that both regular and limited editions of their physical releases are manufactured based on the number of preorders. Preordering a physical game is almost the same as Wishlisting a digital one, Hata suggests, and this may help the publishers know how many copies to produce in the long run.
The first and second volume of The Detective Kibukawa Ryosuke Case Tale Series Collection is set to release on January 29th for the Nintendo Switch. Note that an English-language version is currently unavailable.
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