Monster Hunter Rise, Capcom’s latest long-awaited title, will be releasing worldwide on March 26 tomorrow. Although Capcom said that the game is primarily aimed at kids and teenagers, it seems even the series’ older veterans aren’t going to wait any longer to get their hands on it. And one company in Japan, VR content developer Mark-on Co., Ltd., saw that many of its employees are taking a day off on Monster Hunter Rise‘s release date. Realizing that most of his staff are going to skip work just to scratch that hunting itch, CEO Jack Masaki probably thought, “To heck with it,” and announced that March 26 will be a “Monster Hunter Holiday” and give them a one-day gaming vacation instead.

社員がこの日に休暇を取る人が多数いるのでまとめて休みにした。 pic.twitter.com/yF5VgEOD9t

— JackMasaki (@JackMasaki) March 23, 2021

The company’s official “Holiday Notice” document, written by and tweeted by Masaki himself, basically reads like this:

Nevertheless, this holiday does not actually apply to all members of the company. According to the CEO, the day off is only for all “non-executive” employees instead. Speaking to Yahoo! Japan, Masaki admits that he has personally received a lot of “thank yous” from his staff for the Monster Hunter Holiday idea. As I’m writing this article, Masaki’s tweet has been retweeted more than 53,000 times and has gotten 186,000 likes. With many Japanese netizens voicing envy through their replies, writing things like, “I want it too…” or “That would’ve been impossible for the place I worked!”

March 26 (Friday) will be the release date of Monster Hunter Rise (CAPCOM). Assuming that [our employees] will not be able to concentrate on their work, we are calling for a Monster Hunter Holiday.

Note:

  • Day Off
  • March 26th (Friday)
  • Applies To
  • All employee of Mark-on Co., Ltd.“

This Monster Hunter Holiday is an isolated case, sure. However, another popular game series in Japan has gotten special treatment as well. Dragon Quest series executive producer Yuu Miyake said that back in the days, games shipped out on a Thursday in Japan. But there were kids who would skip school just to buy them. Square Enix (or just Enix back then) and Nintendo then decided to make sure the first-ever Dragon Quest title is released on a Saturday. The game proved to be a cultural hit and the tradition continues on even to Dragon Quest XI, which got its own Saturday release in the Land of Cherry Blossoms.