By 
It’s an exciting time for otome game fans as Konami, a company well known for entries in series like Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side and The Prince of Tennis, is finally localizing some of its dating sims. Moreover, it’s going multiplatform with them, bringing them to the Switch, Switch 2, and PC. It is kicking things off with The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ and The Prince of Tennis Doki Doki Survival ~eternal passion! Tie break ♡game~. To learn more about how this happened, Siliconera spoke with Producer Akihiro Ishihara about these projects and their upcoming worldwide debut in July 2026.
Jenni Lada: This is Konami’s first worldwide localization of the Prince of Tennis otome games. How did the company decide to release them globally?
Akihiro Ishihara: We had been seeing that The Prince of Tennis was gaining popularity among international audiences, and we wanted to explore a global release as a new challenge for the franchise.
When this series was first released in Japan roughly 20 years ago, the overseas market for otome and romance adventure games was still relatively limited. However, since then, we have seen increasing interest in Japanese-style romance adventure games and continued growth in the global market for the genre.
As the market environment evolved and overseas demand for The Prince of Tennis continued to grow, we felt the timing was right to bring the franchise to a global audience for the first time.
Given these otome games involve the Prince of Tennis licensing, did it pose any particular challenge when preparing them for a worldwide release?
Akihiro Ishihara: While the overseas fanbase for The Prince of Tennis has continued to grow, the franchise has been established in Japan for many years and has a very mature audience. We felt there could be differences in how international audiences perceive the characters and connect with their appeal. As a result, one of our key focuses during localization was ensuring that the game would be enjoyable not only for existing fans of The Prince of Tennis, but also for audiences who may be less familiar with the series. We paid close attention to the translation and localization so that the characters’ personalities and charm could be conveyed naturally to audiences around the world.
Konami went with the Switch, Switch 2, and PC for the release of the two Prince of Tennis games. How did the company decide to go with those three platforms?
Akihiro Ishihara: We expected Nintendo Switch to be the primary platform, as we believed it would be where the largest number of players would enjoy the game. In addition, supporting Nintendo Switch 2 was a natural decision given that it is Nintendo’s latest hardware. We also felt it was important to provide an easy upgrade path for players who purchase the Nintendo Switch version.
As for PC, we wanted to make the game accessible to fans around the world, particularly in regions where PC gaming is a popular platform.
Both The Prince of Tennis Doki Doki Survival ~eternal passion! Tie break ♡ game~ and The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ are remasters of older titles. What led to the company picking those two games?
Akihiro Ishihara: Despite being originally released around 20 years ago, these titles have continued to receive strong support from fans. We still hear requests from players who would like to see them return, and the original physical editions have even become highly sought-after collector’s items. The games have also maintained a presence through online content and streaming, which demonstrated to us that there is still strong demand for these titles.
In addition, this year marks the 20th anniversary of their original release, making it the perfect opportunity to bring them back. Given both the continued enthusiasm from fans and the significance of this milestone, we felt it was the right time to release remastered versions of these two titles.
What kind of response have you seen to the announcement of both games so far in terms of things like Steam Wishlists?
Akihiro Ishihara: Since announcing the title, we have been very encouraged by the response from fans. In Japan, the reaction was particularly strong, with the announcement generating enough attention to reach the top of social media trending topics in Japan. We have been pleasantly surprised by the level of enthusiasm and feel that the news has successfully reached the fans who have been hoping for these titles to return for many years.
We have also been receiving feedback from fans overseas, which has been extremely encouraging. At the same time, we feel there is still significant room to further raise awareness outside Japan and reach a broader audience.
That’s why opportunities like this interview are particularly valuable to us, as they help introduce the games to players around the world who may not yet be familiar with them. We are excited to continue sharing more information as we approach launch.
All four Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side games are available on the Switch in Japan. Given the surge in popularity in otome games and visual novels worldwide, how would you feel about an English localization?
Akihiro Ishihara: As I mentioned earlier, we are very encouraged by the growing interest in visual novels around the world. Japan has produced many influential titles in the genre over the years, but we are also seeing innovative works and unique storytelling approaches emerging from creators around the globe. We are excited to see the genre continue to expand and reach new audiences internationally.
In that context, we believe English localization plays a very important role. We see value in helping grow the audience for the genre over the long term and reaching players who may be discovering these types of games for the first time. We hope that initiatives like this can help broaden the appeal of Japanese visual novels and otome games to a wider global audience.
In the case of The Prince of Tennis, these titles feature a remarkably large cast of characters for the visual novel genre, with as many as 38 or 44 characters depending on the title. In that sense, I hope they can help demonstrate new possibilities for the genre and perhaps offer something new for players and the industry alike.
The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ and The Prince of Tennis Doki Doki Survival ~eternal passion! Tie break ♡game~ otome games will appear on the Switch, Switch 2, and PC on July 30, 2026. The original versions of both games appeared on the PS2 and DS in Japan.
