Earlier this week, the Japanese video game rating organisation CERO (Computer Entertainment Rating Agency) announced a temporary closure, which at the time was expected to have a significant impact on the release schedules of many upcoming games – including Nintendo ones.
It seems the first company that could be affected by this suspension is Hamster Corporation. Every week it releases a new game on the Nintendo eShop and it's been doing this now for the past 160 weeks. It has even set a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive eShop releases, but at this rate, it might not last much longer.
In an attempt to sustain the record, Hamster says there'll probably be at least some changes to its development and release schedule. Here's the full explanation, courtesy of Siliconera:
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and CERO rating’s suspension, Hamster says that there’ll likely be changes in the development schedule and that some games not announced may release first as a result. However, the company will try to keep up the track record and keep going if possible, as this period of quarantine is the most apt time for video games.
The latest Hamster Switch eShop release is Konami's 1987 title MX5000 (also known as FLAK ATTACK). It also recently confirmed Tecmo's 1987 shmup Gemini Wing would make its way onto Nintendo's hybrid system.
[source siliconera.com]
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Considering only the japanese rating system has this problem, i think they should consider to release games on the western eShops first and then release them on the JP eShop once the Corona/CERO situation gets better.
A few months delay is one thing, but if this ends up being a longer situation, then a lot of productions from the smallest one-man projects to the largest AAA titles will get hit hard. And that's not even taking into account how awful this feels for the fans/customers who could use any good news they can get right now.
The quickest action to take to get from point A to point B is to suspend CERO certifications and allow direct to market sales. Unfortunately, I can see that opening the flood gates to sneak in all sorts of unauthorized stuff from uncensored content to Cooking Mama's Bitcoin pumping minigame. So it looks like the Japanese markets better cozy up to their backlogs.
Noooooo... why use a picture like that? 😆 I thought that Hamster were finally going to release Bubble Bobble!
NAUGHTY LIAM! 😆
@Ooyah that got me as well. You tease NL
I want chase hq 1 and 2 whenever ready please x x x x x x x
If that means we finally get Arcade Archives Bubble Bobble (on the PS4 for years now), it's fine. Fingers crossed Wrecking Crew had already been cleared, it was first announced ages ago.
But c'mon, all these games had a rating already.
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends on Switch includes the classic arcade game. I appreciate it has to be presented in old 4:3 format with horizontal borders but it's frustrating these old games are still displayed with a significant vertical border above & below the iFrame. Why not use as much of the screen as possible to display the original game?
Well now I really want them to focus on some better titles.
@Desrever Cryptomining in Cooking Mama is FAKE NEWS
@Dragonslacker1
I'm not sure if you read Retro Gamer, but they have a great feature on SCI (AKA Chase HQ 2) this month.
@Ooyah cool thanks for the tip I get retro gamer most months it’s a great read. Haven’t been to the shops in the last week too big of a queue! Spent a summer week playing SCI years ago and arcades were my life back then, but only went to them on holidays. It’s a fantastic game better than the first and look back on that time fondly, I managed to complete it on one credit in the end. I think that is the only arcade game I have done that with. It just baffles me why the chase hq series hasn’t been released to download, I don’t know if it’s a licensing issue or something, but I got my fingers crossed x x take care x x x
Exciting if we get unannounced stuff first
Crap!! Just when sunset riders was announced!! So Why wouldn’t Hamster have these old games rated way in advance??
Why is Bubble Bobble in the main picture? Has it been released in the Arcade Archive series or just Click Bait?
@Shinnos It has but not on Switch yet, sadly.
Awww, I was SO close to being reunited with Sunset Riders! T.T
Still, maybe they could bring the series to XBONE in the meantime? Can't be too much work porting existing titles to that, have a sting of releases for weeks and weeks, and would fit in nicely with the NEO GEO games.
I wish they could have arcade popeye or super punch out.
All I want is Bubba Bobble to join smash, similar to Ice Climbers. Then I'll buy smash.
Good, maybe they'll take stock for a moment a start releasing some good games.
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