Next Play Handles the NARUTO Card Game's "Game Rule Development, Card List Creation and Operations Support" — Listed on the Studio's Own Site, in Exactly the Same Three Lines as the ONE PIECE CARD GAME
With no rulebook and no product information out, it is now possible to confirm from an official primary source who is building the NARUTO Card Game’s rules.
The works page of card game developer Next Play Inc. lists NARUTO CARD GAME (confirmed by this site on October 1, 2026).
About this article: everything below comes from Next Play Inc.’s official site (nextplay.co.jp) and the NARUTO Card Game official site (naruto-cardgame.com), checked directly on October 1, 2026. No aggregator posts, social media hearsay or leaks are included.
1. What the listing says
The source is the “Work” page on Next Play Inc.’s official site. Under the “Trading Card Game” heading it reads:
NARUTO CARD GAME
・ゲームルール開発 (Game rule development) ・カードリスト作成 (Card list creation) ・運営サポート (Operations support)
A title and three bullets. That is all. There is nothing about a release date, product name, timing, or the scope of the engagement.
2. Exactly the same three lines as the ONE PIECE CARD GAME
Six trading card games are listed on the page, and all six carry the identical role text.
| Title | Roles as listed |
|---|---|
| ONE PIECE CARD GAME | Game rule development / Card list creation / Operations support |
| Cookie Run: Braverse | Game rule development / Card list creation / Operations support |
| Kaiun Colosseum | Game rule development / Card list creation / Operations support |
| JURASSIC PARK TCG | Game rule development / Card list creation / Operations support |
| NARUTO CARD GAME | Game rule development / Card list creation / Operations support |
| DRIVE CARD GAME | Game rule development / Card list creation / Operations support |
The same page also lists six board games, and those are written differently — “Development support / Balance supervision” for the Gunnagan series and the two Shinki Kyomei Core Connection titles, and “Game rule development / Card list creation” for the appendix edition of Kaiun Colosseum. On a page that distinguishes TCG credits from board game credits, NARUTO gets the full three-role TCG wording.
Unconfirmed: the wording is identical, but the page tells us nothing about whether the actual workload, discretion or duration matched across those titles. The uniformity may simply be the page’s house format.
3. Company profile
From the company page:
| Item | As listed |
|---|---|
| Company name | 株式会社Next Play (Next Play Inc.) |
| Representative | Representative Director 篠本 涼 |
| Founded | April 15, 2022 |
| Head office | Ueno TA Building 4F, 2-6-4 Kita-Ueno, Taito City, Tokyo 110-0014 |
The same page states the company’s philosophy as “creating the next generation of play,” its vision as “becoming a card game developer that represents the world,” and its values as “making card games that anyone finds fun.”
The services page describes the trading card game development business as follows:
ゲームルールシステムの構築、カード効果の作成及び調整、運営サポートなど、トレーディングカードゲームの企画・開発・運営に必要な業務を幅広く行っております。
(We handle a broad range of work required to plan, develop and operate trading card games — building game rule systems, creating and adjusting card effects, operations support, and more.)
“Creating and adjusting card effects” is a step more specific than the “card list creation” on the works page.
4. What changes when you know who creates the card list
Our card database holds 38 entries as of October 1, 2026. Of those, 24 have effect text confirmed from official primary sources — 22 Characters and Leaders, plus the two system cards (the Chakra Card and the Summon Card).
Counting the keyword notations that appear across those 24 texts:
That is 13 distinct notations, matching our keyword index one for one. Even with only 24 cards visible, the same notations repeat and the bracket form and timing phrasing stay consistent — something observable since the July 30 keyword list.
What is new today is one thing only: Next Play is named as the party that “creates” that card list.
Unconfirmed: nothing states how much of the specific wording or numbers on those 24 cards the studio decided. Whether “game rule development” covers the finished rulebook in full, or is split with Bandai, is also unknown. We will not use this listing as grounds for predictions about revealed card effects or future balance.
For the record, only 17 of the N-001 to N-022 numbers have been tied to a specific card, and N-002, N-015, N-017, N-018 and N-020 remain blank (our card numbering article). Exactly five revealed cards have unreadable numbers, but nothing official links the two sets. The shape of the full “card list” is still invisible from outside.
5. What the card game official site says
We checked the NARUTO Card Game official site the same day.
- The Japanese site’s (/jp/) news list has not moved from July 29, 2026
- The English site’s (/en/) latest item is the September 4, 2026 announcement covering the three European events
- The “About the NARUTO Card Game” page says nothing about the development structure or any production partner
In other words, no announcement from Bandai naming the rules developer could be confirmed. Today’s basis is Next Play’s own official site, and nothing else.
6. Still unannounced
- When the listing was added (the page shows no posting or update date)
- The concrete scope of “game rule development,” “card list creation” and “operations support,” and how they split with Bandai
- The length of the engagement (at what stage the studio joined)
- Whether Bandai will address it officially
- When the rulebook publishes (the blanks we flagged in the rules learning roadmap are still blank)
- Product names, release date, price and contents (nothing beyond “Summer 2027”; still zero products to pre-order)
The next scheduled window for major information is the New York Comic Con 2026 stage “NARUTO: What’s Next?” (October 10, 5:00–6:00 PM local). As covered in our September 30 article, it will be livestreamed worldwide on the official YouTube channel.
Summary
- On October 1, 2026 this site confirmed that Next Play Inc.’s works page lists NARUTO CARD GAME with three roles: game rule development, card list creation and operations support
- Those three lines are identical to the ONE PIECE CARD GAME entry on the same page; all six of the studio’s TCG credits share the wording
- The company was founded April 15, 2022, is headed by Representative Director 篠本 涼, and is based in Kita-Ueno, Taito City, Tokyo. Its services page goes further, saying “creating and adjusting card effects”
- The card game official site says nothing about the development structure, and no Bandai announcement could be confirmed
- The posting date, the breakdown of the roles and the duration of the engagement are all unannounced. Only 24 effect texts are public, so the full card list remains out of view
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Source: nextplay.co.jp