A fifth language version appears: the official site now links to 简体中文 — on a separate domain, naruto-ncg.cn, and it is the only one that does not say June 2027

The official site’s language switcher went from four entries to five.

Checking the NARUTO Card Game official site today (October 23, 2026), all four versions — Japanese, English, English(Asia) and Traditional Chinese — have added 简体中文 to their language switcher.

The destination is new, though. It does not stay inside naruto-cardgame.com; it goes to a separate domain, naruto-ncg.cn.

5 versionsLanguage versions of the official site简体中文 is the fifth

Separate domainWhere the Simplified Chinese site livesnaruto-ncg.cn (external link)

Early summerIts release window wordingThe other four say June 2027

1 itemEntries in its roadmapThe other four list 8

About this article: everything below comes from the four versions of the NARUTO Card Game official site (Japanese, English, English(Asia), Traditional Chinese) and from the Simplified Chinese site naruto-ncg.cn, all checked on October 23, 2026. No page states a release date, price or product lineup for mainland China. English renderings of the Chinese text are ours, with the original quoted alongside.

1. What was added is a single link — to an external domain

In the source of all four versions, the language list appears in three places: the header, the hamburger menu and the footer, and one line was added to every one of them.

<li><a href="https://naruto-ncg.cn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">简体中文</a></li>

Two things set it apart from the other four entries.

We also checked the <link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> tags in <head> that tell search engines about language variants. No zh-Hans line was added — the existing four (ja, en-SG and friends, en, zh-Hant) plus x-default are unchanged.

In other words, structurally this is an outbound link to a different site, not a fifth locale folded into naruto-cardgame.com.

2. The game’s name differs even from the Traditional Chinese version

Open naruto-ncg.cn and the page title (the text in the browser tab) reads:

NARUTO卡牌游戏 官方网站

But the body copy consistently calls the game 火影忍者卡牌对战. 火影忍者 is the official Chinese title of NARUTO, and 卡牌对战 means “card battle”.

Version	Name used in body copy
Japanese	NARUTOカードゲーム
English / English(Asia)	NARUTO CARD GAME
Traditional Chinese	NARUTO卡牌遊戲
Simplified Chinese	火影忍者卡牌对战

The Traditional Chinese version keeps “NARUTO” as-is; the Simplified Chinese version translates it to 火影忍者. Even between the two Chinese versions, the title is not handled the same way.

Note that only the <title> says “NARUTO卡牌游戏”, so two forms coexist within the same site.

The footer carries the ICP filing number 沪ICP备2026024296号-2 — the registration required to publish a website in mainland China. That alone makes clear the site is intended for mainland China.

3. The release window is the one thing the five versions do not agree on

This is the difference most worth recording.

The top page of all four existing versions says, in English, “Arriving in June 2027”. The Simplified Chinese top page does not.

2027年夏季登场

(Arriving summer 2027)

We also checked the “今后日程” (upcoming schedule) block at the end of its ABOUT page, which corresponds to the roadmap on the other versions.

Version	Release wording (as printed)
Japanese	商品発売（世界同時発売 / 2027.06）
English	Worldwide release（ June 2027 ）
English(Asia)	Worldwide release（ June 2027 ）
Traditional Chinese	商品發售（全球同步發售 / 2027.06）
Simplified Chinese	商品发售（全球同步发售 / 2027年初夏 — early summer 2027）

The Simplified Chinese version is the only one that does not name the month.

June falls inside early summer, so this is not a contradiction. It is simply a fact that one version out of five uses a season where the others use a month. The phrase 全球同步发售 (“worldwide simultaneous release”) matches the other versions, so it is not written as a different release timing for mainland China.

We do not claim the Simplified Chinese wording is either newer or older than the others. What can be confirmed is only what the five versions say.

4. The demo sessions have vanished from the roadmap

The other big difference is the roadmap itself. The four existing versions list seven demo-session events at conventions worldwide (Gen Con 2026, BANDAI CARD GAMES Fest 26-27, New York Comic Con 2026, Pax Australia 2026, Spiel Essen 2026, Paris Games Week 2026, Lucca Comics & Games 2026), followed by the product release — eight items in total.

The Simplified Chinese “今后日程” lists one item: the product release.

Japanese 7 events + release8items

English Same structure8items

English(Asia) Same structure8items

Traditional Chinese Same structure8items

Simplified Chinese Release only1items

The page does say 更多活动信息将陆续公开！ (“more event information will be released in due course”), so more is clearly expected. But as of today, not one demo session is published for readers in mainland China. The top page does not carry the schedule section the other versions have, either.

5. The five card types in Simplified Chinese

The “什么是火影忍者卡牌对战” page explains the five card types in the same structure as the Traditional Chinese version. This is the first time the terminology has appeared in Simplified Chinese, so here it is against the other four.

Where the Traditional Chinese version stops at 卡, the Simplified Chinese version uses 卡牌 throughout. The transliteration 查克拉 for “Chakra” is shared by both.

The tagline is rendered differently too. The part corresponding to the Japanese “忍者は裏の裏を読む” is 看穿對手的每一步 (“see through your opponent’s every move”) in Traditional Chinese and 看穿对手的计中计 (“see through the scheme within the scheme”) in Simplified Chinese.

6. The deck count says 50, matching the Japanese version

In our July 31 article we recorded that the deck count disagrees: 50 cards in the Japanese and Traditional Chinese versions versus “a deck of 51 cards” in the two English ones. Which way does the Simplified Chinese version go?

使用1张领袖卡牌、50张的卡组、5张查克拉卡牌和1张登场卡牌，开始战斗！

(Start the battle with 1 Leader card, a 50-card deck, 5 Chakra cards and 1 Summon card!)

Fifty. The same way of counting as the Japanese and Traditional Chinese versions.

• Leader separate, 50-card deck (Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese) 3versions（60%）
• A deck of 51 cards (English, English(Asia)) 2versions（40%）

Adding a language version has not resolved the discrepancy. With no rulebook or comprehensive rules published, which count is the official one cannot be confirmed.

The win condition (将对方领袖的LP归零即可获得胜利 — reduce the opponent Leader’s LP to 0) also matches the Japanese version, so the Simplified Chinese version uses “LP” like the Japanese and Traditional Chinese ones (the English versions say “Life”).

7. Different social accounts, different app

The four existing versions point to X (@narutotcg_jp and others) and the BANDAI TCG+ app. The Simplified Chinese version swaps both out.

There are no links to X or YouTube on the Simplified Chinese site, and conversely no links to Bilibili, Xiaohongshu or Douyin on the four existing versions. News for mainland China will have to be followed through those three accounts.

Its footer also links to the Simplified Chinese BANDAI CARD GAMES portal (carddass.com/bcg/zh-cn/).

8. Three news items, the newest being the Shanghai stop

The Simplified Chinese “NEWS” list holds only three entries.

In our July 31 article we recorded news counts of 4 (Japanese), 13 (English), 9 (English(Asia)) and 6 (Traditional Chinese) as of September 14. Three is below all of them.

One of those three covers the Shanghai stop of BANDAI CARD GAMES Fest 26-27, and a button in the article links through to the Shanghai stop page. Following that link finally let us read the Shanghai details we had been carrying as “unconfirmed” — see our other article today.

9. What is still unknown

• The release date in mainland China (nothing beyond “early summer 2027” and “worldwide simultaneous release”)
• Whether Simplified Chinese products will exist. As recorded in our October 20 article, the official site states that merchandise sold at the Asian demo events is the Japanese version and that products for the Western market will be in English — but no page says anything about Simplified or Traditional Chinese products
• Prices and distribution in mainland China (no retailer or pre-order information)
• Any demo session schedule for mainland China (the roadmap holds the release only)
• What NARUTO will actually run at the Shanghai stop (see our other article today)
• Which company operates the site (only the ICP number is shown; no company name)

Summary

• The official site’s language switcher now includes 简体中文, taking it from four versions to five, and the entry appears in all three locations on all four versions
• The destination is a separate domain, naruto-ncg.cn — an external target="_blank" link, with no zh-Hans added to hreflang
• Its body copy calls the game 火影忍者卡牌对战, different even from the Traditional Chinese “NARUTO卡牌遊戲”
• The release window reads 2027年夏季登场 and 全球同步发售 / 2027年初夏 — the only one of the five not to name a month
• Its roadmap lists one item only, against eight on the other four, meaning no demo sessions are listed
• The deck count reads 50, matching the Japanese and Traditional Chinese versions, making the split with the English “51 cards” 3 to 2
• Social links are Bilibili, Xiaohongshu and Douyin, and the app is 万代卡牌APP — no X, no BANDAI TCG+

Our guide to official information channels and our four-version read-through cover how to follow official sources. We will reflect any release date, demo session or product information added to the Simplified Chinese site the same day it appears.

Related articles

• BCG Fest 26-27 Shanghai is December 26–27 — the last of the 11 cities to get dates
• Reading the official site in four languages — “50 cards” versus “51 cards”
• The Premier Demo Event pages differ across all four language versions
• A guide to official information channels

Sources

• NARUTO Card Game Simplified Chinese official site: naruto-ncg.cn, 什么是火影忍者卡牌对战 (ABOUT), NEWS (all checked October 23, 2026)
• NARUTO Card Game official site: Japanese top, NARUTOカードゲームとは, English ABOUT, English(Asia) ABOUT, Traditional Chinese ABOUT (all checked October 23, 2026; sources for the language switcher addition and the release wording)