Release date and the September delay
It is out. Japanese Ramen Simulator entered Steam Early Access on 9 October 2026 at 08:00 UTC (17:00 in Japan). The date that was announced first was 28 September, and that one slipped because Steam’s pre-release review failed.
Timeline from Steam news
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-21 | PR Times announcement. Site copy said September 2026. |
| 2026-09-16 | 28 September, 09:00 JST, named as the date. Wishlist at 50,000. |
| 2026-09-24 | Wishlist 100,000. Creator previews start. That is not Early Access. |
| 2026-09-28 | Launch delayed. Steam sent the build back over controller settings and cloud sync. |
| 2026-10-06 | Review passed. New time: 9 October, 08:00 UTC. Wishlist 200,000. Discount raised to 15%. |
| 2026-10-09 | Early Access opens, with day-one patch v0.1.48.17626. |
| 2026-10-16 | 100,000 copies and a public roadmap. 1.0 date still not given. |
I read those as separate Steam news posts, not as a single recap article. The Early Access FAQ on the store says the team expects about six months of Early Access. That is a duration, not a 1.0 calendar day, so I am not printing a full-release date.
What “early” means in Japanese search
先行プレイ in the September posts is the creator preview that started on 24 September. It is not the same thing as the Early Access launch on 9 October. The delay itself is real: the 28 September date was missed, and the studio said so.
Some Japanese launch articles wrote a 10-player cap. The Steam description and the studio site both say six. I keep six, and I link the contradiction from the multiplayer page.