{"id":53541,"date":"2025-11-01T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53541"},"modified":"2025-10-31T16:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T07:54:18","slug":"level-5-fans-who-won-day-one-free-copies-of-game-delayed-into-oblivion-finally-get-to-redeem-it-after-7-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/level-5-fans-who-won-day-one-free-copies-of-game-delayed-into-oblivion-finally-get-to-redeem-it-after-7-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Level-5 fans who won \u201cday-one\u201d free copies of game delayed into oblivion finally get to redeem it after 7 years\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Level-5 may be almost comically late in releasing its games, but it doesn\u2019t forget its promises to players. Japanese fans who won a raffle for a day-one free copy of Inazuma Eleven Ares recently received a letter from the developer with instructions on how to redeem the game. The catch is, it\u2019s been 7 years since the giveaway took place, and the game is now called <strong>Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road<\/strong>, set to launch in two weeks\u2019 time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The much-awaited hyper-dimensional football RPG has been delayed a total of eight times by now, twice in 2018 and once each year since then, including one bonus little \u201crelease date adjustment\u201d announced in June 2025. Japanese X user @GOTTbatotai54 won a complimentary copy of the game back in 2018, its original launch window, and probably wasn\u2019t expecting for the offer to still stand after all these years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">[\u901f\u5831]<br><br>7\u5e74\u524d\u306b\u5f53\u9078\u3057\u305f\u30a4\u30ca\u30ba\u30de\u30a4\u30ec\u30d6\u30f3\u5c4a\u304f<br>\u3044\u3064\u3082\u304a\u524d\u306f\u9045\u3044\u3093\u3060\u3088\uff01 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sg4BFhPjOC\">pic.twitter.com\/sg4BFhPjOC<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u30b4\u30c3\u30c8\u3070\u3068\u305f\u3044 (@GOTTbatotai54) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GOTTbatotai54\/status\/1983825314032857396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 30, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But much to their surprise, now that Inazuma Eleven is (hopefully) launching for real, Level-5 sent them a letter. \u201cWe deeply apologize for the significant delay in sending out the prizes for the Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road giveaway,&#8221; it reads, with instructions on redeeming the digital edition once it&#8217;s out on November 13.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They\u2019re not the only one too, as another Japanese user <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Sei_soft\/status\/1984133318452113849\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported receiving the same letter<\/a>. \u201cMy daughter was in the fourth grade of elementary school when she won this raffle, and she\u2019s in her second year of high school now, lol,\u201d the parent wrote.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u300e\u30a4\u30ca\u30ba\u30de\u30a4\u30ec\u30d6\u30f3 \u82f1\u96c4\u305f\u3061\u306e\u30f4\u30a3\u30af\u30c8\u30ea\u30fc\u30ed\u30fc\u30c9\u300f\u30d5\u30a1\u30a4\u30ca\u30eb\u30c8\u30ec\u30fc\u30e9\u30fc 1\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s9UO6I9qSQs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Level-5 has in recent years been on the receiving end of pretty harsh criticism from a big portion of the Japanese fandom, with the frequent delays undoubtedly being part of what\u2019s broken consumers\u2019 trust. However, this bit of news has been equal parts baffling and touching for fans, as <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nsns200812\/status\/1983998028722934107\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one popular response<\/a> puts it, \u201cLevel-5&#8230; they always come through when it counts, so you can\u2019t bring yourself to turn your back on them. Inazuma Eleven was a bottleneck for them, but it\u2019s finally coming out now. I hope they manage to regroup and rebuild themselves.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road launches November 13 for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PS5\/PS4, PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2799860\/INAZUMA_ELEVEN_Victory_Road\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>), and Xbox Series X|S.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related articles: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/level-5-quickly-revises-inazuma-eleven-victory-roads-platform-exclusive-bonuses-in-response-to-player-feedback\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Level-5 quickly revises Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road\u2019s platform-exclusive bonuses in response to player feedback<\/strong><\/a><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/game-development\/level-5-ceo-explains-why-delays-happen-so-much-and-why-just-announcing-things-later-isnt-always-a-solution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Level-5 CEO explains why delays happen so much and why \u201cjust announcing things later\u201d isn\u2019t always a solution<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People who won free copies Inazuma Eleven; VIctory road back when it was slated for release in 2018 have been contacted by Level-5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":49500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-53541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Level-5 fans who won \u201cday-one\u201d free copies of game delayed into oblivion finally get to redeem it after 7 years\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"People who won free copies Inazuma Eleven; VIctory road back when it was slated for release in 2018 have been contacted by Level-5.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/level-5-fans-who-won-day-one-free-copies-of-game-delayed-into-oblivion-finally-get-to-redeem-it-after-7-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Level-5 fans who won \u201cday-one\u201d free copies of game delayed into oblivion finally get to redeem it after 7 years\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"People who won free copies Inazuma Eleven; 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