[duckroll]

http://www.gamememo.com/2010/06/06/mmv-sinsaku-tyuusi/

It seems the MMV is changing their business plans significantly for the current financial year. They will cease development of original IP, sell off their European subsidiary, and withdraw from distribution of their titles overseas entirely (probably means they'll only license stuff from now on to interested publishers).

MMV was heavily involved in developing a ton of original IP in recent years for a bunch of platforms, most notably the Wii. Unfortunately they all sold like dog shit, and in view of the developer of Little King Story going bankrupt (CING), MMV producer Wada says that they don't want to die like CING did. So they're going to cease developing/funding any new IPs in the foreseeable future.

MMV has expressed interest in releasing software for the 3DS in the next financial year, but there is no indication if they plan on resuming the development of new IP by then. If not, then they will likely only be developing established brands like Harvest Moon and Rune Factory. They are also interested in expanding their portfolio with online browser games.

[Aeana]

So sad. :(

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Sad, but not exactly unexpected. None of their new IPs have sold well in Japan (although a couple sold well oversees), so I guess this is a logical step for them.

[Y2Kev]

http://www.gamememo.com/2010/06/06/mmv-sinsaku-tyuusi/ distribution of their titles overseas entirely (probably means they'll only license stuff from now on to interested publishers).

This is interesting. I was under the impression their original strategy was to license games (to, like, Ignition or Xseed), and then they just recently reversed course on that. Going back in the original direction?

[Wellscha]

Whoa, were they hit that bad to the point of being bankrupt?

[LiquidMetal14]

Tough for the little guys :/

[Amir0x]

I really enjoyed Little King's Story. I know that was CING but they sorta had something to do with it so that's my line.

[Urban Scholar]

unfortunate is the only word

[BlazingDarkness]

sold like dog shit :lol you have such a way with words duck

[zigg]

They pushed a lot of great stuff. Really unfortunate.

At least Rune Factory was a winner and will probably continue.

[jj984jj]

Wow, I already knew they went back to the old licensing model for international titles but no more new IPs? So basically licenses is what they're going to concentrate on now, aside from their own even?

[OnPoint]

That really sucks. I hope they can get back into doing original stuff eventually, maybe make a run for it in the download arena

[duckroll]

This is interesting. I was under the impression their original strategy was to license games (to, like, Ignition or Xseed), and then they just recently reversed course on that. Going back in the original direction?

I think what they're referring to is that in the US, they actually entered into exclusive deals with XSEED for example, to co-distribute games directly to the US. Also, in Europe they have a subsidiary (Rising Star Games I think) that publishes their stuff there. They're basically withdrawing entirely from all these business ventures.

[Ridley327]

I'm guessing that's why they ultimately ended up getting NMH1 ported to the 360 and PS3, in an attempt to expand the IP and make it a bigger focus for the company.

That didn't turn out so well.

[Eteric Rice]

They need to get some 3DS dev kits. The first year or a system's life is when titles hit it big.

Maybe make a LKS portable?

[Tiktaalik]

Do we have a list of games they did well on vs games they did poorly on? I'm curious if we can guess at how they'll scale back.

[Metroid Killer]

And Little King's Story was such a great game, shame on any wii owners complaining about lack of 3rd party support who didn't buy this game. :(

[Urban Scholar]

I'm guessing that's why they ultimately ended up getting NMH1 ported to the 360 and PS3, in an attempt to expand the IP and make it a bigger focus for the company. That didn't turn out so well.

NMH port was another nail in the coffin given the end product and sales

[duckroll]

sold like dog shit :lol you have such a way with words duck

When a Japanese company spokesman makes a statement like "We don't want to die just yet" while giving a briefing on the company's future business direction, I think words like "dog shit" are perfectly suited!

[speedpop]

A stark reminder that GAF is nothing more than a drop in an ocean.

[Eteric Rice]

And Little King's Story was such a great game, shame on any wii owners complaining about lack of 3rd party support who didn't buy this game. :(

I bought it, I loved it, and I wants a sequel! :<

[Ridley327]

NMH port was another nail in the coffin given the end product and sales

You know a IP has no mass appeal in Japan when both versions of the game couldn't muster the strength to outsell the Wii version, which had been out for more than three years at that point. :lol

[Quadrangulum]

Such a shame. LKS was one of this generation's highlights and it was easily accessible to boot.

[duckroll]

A stark reminder that GAF is nothing more than a drop in an ocean.

I dunno, I would say GAF is a pretty good representation of what people are interested in on a whole. MMV games never got much attention on GAF, and there are very few people here who actually bought and played any of their games. I wouldn't say that a SINGLE MMV really had anything amounting to "hype" on GAF. So it's not really surprising that the games sold like shit and now they're in danger of going out of business. :P

[Jangaroo]

I bought it, I loved it, and I wants a sequel! :<

And unfortunately we never will. This is terrible news...

[Brazil]

I think what they're referring to is that in the US, they actually entered into exclusive deals with XSEED for example, to co-distribute games directly to the US. Also, in Europe they have a subsidiary (Rising Star Games I think) that publishes their stuff there. They're basically withdrawing entirely from all these business ventures.

Rising Star Games is in fact their European subsidiary. You mentioned that the article said they would sell it, though, didn't you?

[Urban Scholar]

You know a IP has no mass appeal in Japan when both versions of the game couldn't muster the strength to outsell the Wii version, which had been out for more than three years at that point. :lol

That and the port is a technical mess and I know that patch its coming now after this thread. I doubt I'll even muster the strength to even play more of the ps3 version.

[Stumpokapow]

I'm going to hijack this thread to post some news that no one cares about

AQ Interactive ceased to be a video game publisher this week. Cavia and Feelplus are still going to develop games, but they are no longer going to publish games at all. I was too embarrassed to start a thread about it.

[duckroll]

I'm going to hijack this thread to post some news that no one cares about AQ Interactive ceased to be a video game publisher this week. Cavia and Feelplus are still going to develop games, but they are no longer going to publish games at all. I was too embarrassed to start a thread about it.

Do you want me to change this thread into some sort of "Terrible Japanese publisher news" thread or something? I could if you can find just one more piece of bad news!

(What about Artoon?)

[Ridley327]

I think that's threadworthy; Nier made a lot of new fans of Cavia and there was that thread about Lost Odyssey being better than FFXIII, and that's related to Feelplus!

[Stumpokapow]

(What about Artoon?)

Yes, they're still going. I knew I forgot someone. XSeed is also continuing as usual, but the main AQI isn't going to do anything. No original IP, no publishing.

[Vamphuntr]

Rising Star Games is in fact their European subsidiary. You mentioned that the article said they would sell it, though, didn't you?

Weren't they mostly using translations/localizations from US publishers though (like Atlus, Xseed, Ignition and so on)?

[duckroll]

I think that's threadworthy; Nier made a lot of new fans of Cavia and there was that thread about Lost Odyssey being better than FFXIII, and that's related to Feelplus!

But none of that has to do with AQ Interactive as a publisher. I think that was his point, no one cares about their publishing, because they really sucked at it.

[Ridley327]

True enough, I suppose.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

I bought two copies of Deadly Premonition dammit!

=(

Glad to hear Cavia is relatively unaffected. Hopefully they make games forever.

[Kajiba]

Man that sucks.

= (

[yoopoo]

Since we're posting bad news. Here's a story from Japan about DS piracy costing 3.816 trillion yen over 5 years.

CESA also reported a number of other findings from its investigations. The country with the most servers hosting piracy sites is America. China is number 2. Together, these two countries account for 60% of all servers.

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...piracy_report/

[jj984jj]

I think that's threadworthy; Nier made a lot of new fans of Cavia and there was that thread about Lost Odyssey being better than FFXIII, and that's related to Feelplus!

But this news doesn't effect them apparently, I don't think anyone really cares about those titles AQI published on their own. Stuff like Bullet Witch and Ju-On (The Grudge).

[Aeana]

Yes, they're still going. I knew I forgot someone. XSeed is also continuing as usual, but the main AQI isn't going to do anything. No original IP, no publishing.

They're doing a good job of going out of business all by themselves. Most recent news: SnK SC and The 3rd aren't targeted for 2011.

[Cow Mengde]

I dunno, I would say GAF is a pretty good representation of what people are interested in on a whole. MMV games never got much attention on GAF, and there are very few people here who actually bought and played any of their games. I wouldn't say that a SINGLE MMV really had anything amounting to "hype" on GAF. So it's not really surprising that the games sold like shit and now they're in danger of going out of business. :P

The fact that MMV's biggest name franchise, Harvest Moon, doesn't get a peep on GAF should tell you how well known their games are. There's no Official Thread for the last 4 or 5 Harvest Moon games on GAF.

[Stumpokapow]

They're doing a good job of going out of business all by themselves. Most recent news: SnK SC and The 3rd aren't targeted for 2011.

hahaha I bet the PSP in 2012 is going to be a really lucrative market!

[Vamphuntr]

They're doing a good job of going out of business all by themselves. Most recent news: SnK SC and The 3rd aren't targeted for 2011.

:( PSP won't be there anymore.

[duckroll]

Yeah, I don't even think I need to change the topic. Everyone here can feel free to discuss how terrible the outlook is for the bottom feeders of the Japanese game industry. The big boys are doing pretty okay, but the publishers who have been pumping out bomba after bomba (real bombas!) for years now are totally feeling the pinch now.

I'm kinda glad that Sting managed to make a publishing deal with Atlus, because if not for that, I fear they might not be in business long either. Even with that contract in place, I dunno how long Atlus will continue to support their games if they continue to sell jackshit worldwide.

[Haunted]

Sad day, indeed. They made some stellar titles.

No one's safe these days, US, Japanese, European devs - everyone's affected.

[flamesofchaos]

I'm going to hijack this thread to post some news that no one cares about AQ Interactive ceased to be a video game publisher this week. Cavia and Feelplus are still going to develop games, but they are no longer going to publish games at all. I was too embarrassed to start a thread about it.

That would also mean that XSEED is screwed since AQ Interactive is XSEED's parent company.

[Mikhal]

Not surprising that MMV is doing this. I was just listening to an older episode of WARNING! A Huge Podcast and the sales they mentioned were horrible. Out of 9 games they released, they sold an average of 51K each.

[Kaldea]

Horrible news. :(

Loved Little King's Story.

[jiggle]

fewer but better Harvest Moons plz

[Vamphuntr]

fewer but better Harvest Moons plz

Do they change that much with each iterations anymore? The last Harvest Moon I bought was the one for the N64 mainly because it was 3d.

[Mejilan]

Another one (semi-)bites the dust. :/