Why This Exists
In the mobile gaming industry, developers often "soft launch" their games in select countries before a global release. This lets them test monetization, gather feedback, and refine gameplay before committing to a worldwide launch.
The problem? There's no centralized place to track these soft launches. Industry professionals rely on word-of-mouth, scattered forum posts, and manual App Store searches to discover new soft launch titles.
Building the Tracker
I created Softlaunch Tracker to solve this exact problem. The platform automatically monitors app stores across multiple regions (Canada, Philippines, Australia, and more) and detects when new games appear that aren't available globally yet.
Key Features
- Automated detection of soft launch games across iOS and Android
- Region tracking showing exactly where each game is available
- Historical data on how long games have been in soft launch
- Alert system for when games expand to new regions or go global
The tracker has become a valuable tool for game developers, publishers, and market analysts who need to stay on top of industry trends and competitive intelligence.
The Tech Stack
The backend runs on Node.js with Express, using PostgreSQL to store game data and region availability. A scheduled job checks the App Store and Google Play APIs every few hours, comparing results against our database to detect new entries. The React frontend provides fast, searchable access to all the data with filters for genre, region, and launch date.