Czech Wishlist Fan Gets Baseball Sim Localized, Steam Launch Set for August 31
Solo developer EBA GAME, run by developer Eba, announced that the first-person baseball ball search simulator 'Ball Collecting Simulator' will launch on Steam on August 31 for 700 yen, with a 30% launch discount bringing the price to 490 yen. The game is set in a Japanese high school baseball club and depicts the unreasonable hierarchies of coaches and seniors, described as psychological horror based on the author's real experiences. The project gained worldwide attention when Eba discovered a single wishlist registration from the Czech Republic and decided to add Czech localization for that one person. That decision sparked a viral reaction, with the related X post surpassing 110,000 likes and 2.22 million views. As a result, Steam wishlist registrations surged from about 350 at the initial announcement to over 6,500, with more than 2,000 coming from the Czech Republic. The localization, initially planned as AI translation, will now be done with volunteer cooperation from Czech people, and full voice acting by professional Czech voice actors has been decided. Czech WBC team pitcher Ondrej Satria has offered to cooperate and will appear in the game through audio and photo compositing.