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Schrodinger's Call is a game born out of the collective trauma of COVID

Feeling so close to each other and yet so distant has been one of the most lingering aspects of the COVID pandemic

PAX East 2026 Schrodigners Call — Image credit: Shueisha Games / Popverse

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Sat Mar 28 2026

Popverse's top stories

Just mentioning the year 2020 brings to mind a whole host of images, but the sensation of isolation that came from the various lockdowns probably sticks out the most. That loneliness and difficulty connecting changed social interactions for years afterward, but the memory of craving connection but being denied it is something that still lingers, and it is what inspired upcoming visual novel Schrodinger’s Call.

The demo for Schrodinger’s Call is already out on Steam, but at PAX East 2026, we spoke to Alonzo Omotegawa from publisher Shueisha Games about Schrodinger’s Call. The game follows Mary, a young woman who exists in the final 21 nanoseconds between life and death as the world is ending. Her role is to speak to people via a mysterious telephone and listen to their regrets, hopes, and stories. Mary never gets to see the people she speaks to and, though she gets to know their stories, never gets to truly connect to them.

“So, specifically in 2020, which we all remember, that was a big year because of COVID,” Omotegawa told us about what inspired developer Acrobatic Chirimenjako to create Schrodinger’s Call. “And, to put it short, that kind of gave her the idea behind this whole story. She felt like throughout the COVID pandemic most of us kind of like, I don’t know if it was a trend in the US but in Japan there was a whole trend called Skype Drinking where we would just call each other and just drink and talk as if we were there in person but we couldn’t see each other so it was a huge thing.”

In addition to drinking, people in Japan would commonly cook over Skype, trying to recreate the experience of cooking with a donabe. Omotegawa explained that this is where family and friends “put a bunch of food in one pottery and we cook it on the spot and eat it on the spot.” People were doing that over Skype, but it seemed to have made the developer feel more distant than anything else. “I guess she had this deep sensation that it’s so sad that we’re kind of all close but not really. We’re so distant that even though we are facing each other through a video camera, and we can communicate with one another… She felt like we’re always like, ‘Oh, I should have said this, but we hung up the phone. We could have talked more, but instead of just being in person. So that kind of disconnect, that emotion kind of made her build upon this idea.”

Schrodinger’s Call is out on May 28, 2026.

The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew all our minds in the 70s. We've got everything you need to know about the next big thing in games. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming out between now and then. Here is our starter guide for every gamer:

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