Marvelous USA has been hitting the headlines for all of the right reasons in the run-up to the Switch 2’s launch next week, on 5th June 2025. The publisher is one of the few third-parties bringing a full physical release to the new console on launch day in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, with Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar and Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion also following suit later this year (the latter only in the West).
And, in an interview with RPG Site’s Mikhail Madnani, Marvelous USA / XSEED Games CEO and co-founder Ken Berry has shared why the publisher decided to go all-in on physical on the Switch 2, at least for the time being — because it’s “this is the right decision for us and our relationship with our fanbase.”
Berry tells RPG Site that physical releases are “a combination of personal preference and long-term business strategy”, with Berry relating to many fans’ disappointment at opening boxes with codes or grabbing a console without a disc drive.
“…if someone like me who’s been in the industry for half my life can’t tell the difference on which cases contain the physical game or not, I can only imagine how much more difficult it is for a non-industry person, especially if they are purchasing as a gift for someone else.” The studio is conscious of fans’ and buyers’ concerns, and Berry says “I never want anyone to have buyer’s remorse after purchasing one of our retail games”.
The decision to go full-physical with the brand new Rune Factory and Story of Season’s titles had to be “made many months ago” while Marvelous was still finding out about Game-Key Card option: but Berry says that “the more [Marvelous USA] found out about it the more I thought our fans would much prefer the ROM option.”
While both of those games were already set for the Switch 1, Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion is skipping the old console, meaning it was a different process to get the game secured on the cart. Especially when the Japanese release, handled by Marvelous in Japan, is a Game-Key Card release.
“We still wanted to go with the full ROM version in our Switch 2 release in the West and thankfully the development team at Marvelous Japan obliged.” Berry says, but he does warn that this may not be the case for all future titles, particularly smaller titles and indies: “though I’d love to say all Switch 2 releases from us in the future will go the full ROM route, nothing is guaranteed.”
For the time being, at least, it’s all good news, with Berry and Marvelous USA / XSEED Games bringing three games to the new console this year. There’s been a lot of vocal support for the publisher here, and we hope the games manage to deliver.
Prior to the Switch 2 reveals for both Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, we had a chance to speak to the developers of both games to find out what to expect. Have a read of those, and let us know what you think of these physical releases in the comments.
