Level-5 prioritizing Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y – Waiwai Gakuen Seikatsu over Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes

Level-5 is prioritizing development of Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y – Waiwai Gakuen Seikatsu over the troubled Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes, company president and CEO Akihiro Hino said in a tweet.

“This is a bit sudden, but for business reasons we have prioritized Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y – Waiwai Gakuen Seikatsu over Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes,” Hino said. “To get things moving again, we need to think about how to make [Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes] a hit and the steps required to achieve that, which we’re looking into alongside development. We’re focusing on making a good game this time. I apologize for keeping everyone waiting so long.”

Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y – Waiwai Gakuen Seikatsu launched for Switch on August 13 in Japan, and is due out for PlayStation 4 at a later date. But the initial launch is just part one of the game’s release. The school life RPG will receive at least two major updates free of charge. The first—which adds online multiplayer, story, playable characters, and more—is set to be detailed at Tokyo Game Show 2020 Online on September 26.

As for Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes, the last time we heard from the game it was delayed to a “likely” 2021 release window in Japan. It was initially planned for release as Inazuma Eleven Ares in summer 2018, before getting delayed to fall 2018, then to winter, then past May 2019, then to spring 2020 under its current title. After that, Level-5 admitted to further development difficulties and a month later announced the current 2021 release window.