Erotic games thrive on Switch as PlayStation’s rules grow stricter

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With Sony fortifying its censorship policies for Japanese eroge (short for “erotic game”) franchises like Omega Labyrinth and Super Neptunia on PlayStation consoles, Japanese game developers seem to be flocking towards the Nintendo Switch with their adult content. The topic recently gained traction on Japanese social media when a Japanese shopper shared a photo of a Nintendo Switch software corner at a retailer, which happened to be lined with numerous adult games.

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Some of the games in the post include RE: D Cherish, Da Capo III (D.C. III), and JINKI -Infinity-. While some of these games are censored (for example, JINKI -Infinity- is the censored version of JINKI -Unlimited-), seeing two shelves filled with physical copies shows just how big the demand for eroges is.

While PC gaming in Japan has seen a rise over the years according to a study by game industry consultancy Kantan Games Inc., Japanese console owners still make up the majority of the country’s game consumer market. This makes Sony’s PlayStation 4 and 5, the Nintendo Switch, and to some extent, the Microsoft Xbox Series X|S the go-to areas for game developers and publishers (including those who work on eroges) to peddle their titles. But since the Xbox hasn’t done particularly well in Japan and Sony has cracked down on adult content, that leaves the Nintendo Switch to take on Japan’s steamiest and more adult-centered content.

The eroge boom isn’t just limited to physical copies, either. On a related note, the My Nintendo Store has grown quite full of eroges – some of which contain sensitive words such as “hentai” that are not appropriate for a family-centered console. Though a lot of these “hentai”-titled games are rapidly produced overseas by people wanting to make a quick buck, it just goes to show how easy it is to peddle such content on Nintendo’s digital storefronts