Japan: record-breaking 55 new games launched in a single day for the Nintendo Switch

Written by. Ryuki Ishii based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-04-28 21:56 JST)

A whopping 55 new titles launched on April 28 (JST) for the Nintendo Switch in Japan. That’s a record-breaking number of new releases happening on the same day, as far as we can check. We consulted a Twitter user named naruki, who has been monitoring the Nintendo eShop for a long time, and they also found the number to be a record high.

The screenshot above shows all the games that launched on April 28. The list includes Zombie Army 4: Dead War, Bugsnax, Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight, Parkasaurus, Transiruby, a Switch port of the Sega Saturn classic RayForce/Galactic Attack, and a meta novel game ――Chigau!!! As you can see, the list covers a wide variety of genres.

A few companies released two or three titles on that day, but they make up for a small fraction of the total number. Publishers were likely trying to get their games out before the Golden Week, a collection of four national holidays in Japan (April 29 and May 3-5), so that users would play their games during that time.

Of the 55 titles released on April 28, only 15 used Japan’s CERO rating system. The remaining 40 titles opted for the IARC (International Age Rating Coalition) rating system, which is free of charge, and a single review can be converted into ratings for multiple regions. Meaning, lower hurdles for getting games released, especially for small-scale developers.

The Nintendo eShop in Japan started accepting IARC ratings in September 2020, and the number of new releases increased significantly after the introduction. The number of new releases per day was around 20 at most, but now it’s fairly common to see 30 to 40 titles released on the same day. More and more foreign indie game developers are distributing their games in Japan using the IARC ratings, and although that’s a welcoming change, with such a huge number of games available, browsing the store can be a bit of a hassle. But at least, Switch users in Japan won’t have any shortage of new games to play during the holidays.