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Masahiro Yamamoto (Zettai Hero, Disgaea 4) joins Idea Factory [Mass Exodus at N1?]

duckroll

Member
http://www.ideaf.co.jp/news/2013/0930/

Idea Factory has announced that they have contracted Masahiro Yamamoto to lead a new RPG project for the PS Vita which will be published by Compile Heart in 2014. Masahiro Yamamoto was previously a long time Nippon Ichi developer who worked as the main programmer and a game designer on many lead titles starting from Disgaea 2, before leading the design and direction of recent Nippon Ichi titles such as Zettai Hero Project, Disgaea 4, and The Guided Fate Paradox.

This is a teaser of the design images from the new RPG he's working on for Idea Factory:

nBSgH2d.jpg



Edit: Update.

Japanese blogs picking up on this story have pointed out that there was a big Nippon Ichi scandal rumor on 2ch way back in June. Someone posted details about a mass exodus from "Company N" with the following details (I've filled in the blanks for obvious references):

Mr.Y (Masahiro Yamamoto) who was in charge of D (Disgaea) and KP (KamiPara), along with almost all the development staff including the main programmer have resigned. The Executive Mr.K and the North American Corporate Head Mr.A, along with their subordinates have also left the company. The above mentioned are making something similar for Company I (Idea Factory).

Mr.K who worked on the D (Disgaea) spinoff D2 has also left the company with a subordinate who was working on the recently announced project A (Arcadias). They have joined Company M.

About half of the development team currently developing a game for the eternal next game protagonist A (Asagi) have also left the company. The project is at a stand still.

Considering the confirmation of the first part of the rumor, this sounds pretty bad for the future of the company.
 

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
I know most people will hate this but I think this is pretty awesome. I've always enjoyed the aesthetics of IF games way more NIS games in general. Hopefully this new IF game ends up pretty good in all aspects.
 
Edit: So it's not so much that he moved from N1 to IF ... that he's doing contract work now? Is N1 done with him?

This is the guy who directed Z.H.P.? Maybe Idea Factory will be able to make a good RPG for once? Maybe?

Or Idea Factory will render whatever this guy comes up with unpalatable.
 

AniHawk

Member
http://www.ideaf.co.jp/news/2013/0930/

Idea Factory has announced that they have contracted Masahiro Yamamoto to lead a new RPG project for the PS Vita which will be published by Compile Heart in 2014. Masahiro Yamamoto was previously a long time Nippon Ichi developer who worked as the main programmer and a game designer on many lead titles starting from Disgaea 2, before leading the design and direction of recent Nippon Ichi titles such as Zettai Hero Project, Disgaea 4, and The Guided Fate Paradox.

This is a teaser of the design images from the new RPG he's working on for Idea Factory:

nBSgH2d.jpg

looks like harada's art.
 

duckroll

Member
I think it's worth noting that the wording of the announcement implies that Yamamoto jumped ship from Nippon Ichi with the entire development team/studio he was managing.

Under his profile, it says that "In 2013, seeking a fresh start he and his colleagues decided to pursue a new game development envinroment."
 

Wynnebeck

Banned
I think it's worth noting that the wording of the announcement implies that Yamamoto jumped ship from Nippon Ichi with the entire development team/studio he was managing.

Under his profile, it says that "In 2013, seeking a fresh start he and his colleagues decided to pursue a new game development envinroment."

Oh wow. Wonder how he swung that.
 
I think it's worth noting that the wording of the announcement implies that Yamamoto jumped ship from Nippon Ichi with the entire development team/studio he was managing.

Under his profile, it says that "In 2013, seeking a fresh start he and his colleagues decided to pursue a new game development envinroment."

Wait, so if I'm understanding things correctly isn't the team Yamamoto was managing the core of Nippon Ichi, since it was the main Disgaea team? Can Nippon Ichi even continue to exist now?
 

duckroll

Member
Wait, so if I'm understanding things correctly isn't the team Yamamoto was managing the core of Nippon Ichi, since it was the main Disgaea team? Can Nippon Ichi even continue to exist now?

No that's not the case. The guy who manages N1 and produces/writes most of the games is Sohei Niikawa. Yamamoto is the development director for the recent Disgaea Team games, which I believe are developed under one of the new subsidiaries they created in 2011 - Counterstop in particular. It could be Counterstop which is developing this new game for Idea Factory. N1 can still exist, but that would certainly be a hit in terms of talent exodus if they left.

Edit: I think I mentioned this arrangement before in the first thread about Guided Fate Paradox: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=457407
 

fek

Member
Quite unexpected, but I'm fine with this. I like his previous works and I'm a bit worried about how this will affect NIS but I believe he'll be able to keep making good games on IF.
 

Esura

Banned
I love how one of my favorite developers just keep getting more talent and getting bigger and bigger. Love me some Idea Factory man...
 

Silky

Banned
More games that probably won't be suited to my tastes/ends up being shit-tier.

Hooray for CH fans, I mean. I know people like Neptunia.
 

nightever

Member
I think it's worth noting that the wording of the announcement implies that Yamamoto jumped ship from Nippon Ichi with the entire development team/studio he was managing.

Under his profile, it says that "In 2013, seeking a fresh start he and his colleagues decided to pursue a new game development envinroment."

This is pretty strange, since I thought Nippion Ichi had good relationship with other small developers like Idea Factory.
 

duckroll

Member
Japanese blogs picking up on this story have pointed out that there was a big Nippon Ichi scandal rumor on 2ch way back in June. Someone posted details about a mass exodus from "Company N" with the following details (I've filled in the blanks for obvious references):

Mr.Y (Masahiro Yamamoto) who was in charge of D (Disgaea) and KP (KamiPara), along with almost all the development staff including the main programmer have resigned. The Executive Mr.K and the North American Corporate Head Mr.A, along with their subordinates have also left the company. The above mentioned are making something similar for Company I (Idea Factory).

Mr.K who worked on the D (Disgaea) spinoff D2 has also left the company with a subordinate who was working on the recently announced project A (Arcadias). They have joined Company M.

About half of the development team currently developing a game for the eternal next game protagonist A (Asagi) have also left the company. The project is at a stand still.

Considering the confirmation of the first part of the rumor, this sounds pretty bad for the future of the company.
 
I wish this studio would make a compelling game with a decent plot for once. An all-girls RPG would be a nice idea, but not like how Neptunia handles it...
 

ZoddGutts

Member
Wonder what happened behind the scenes. Financial issues? The Witch and The Hundred Witches sold well in Japan, so it couldn't be that. Also of all companies to choose to go to, they end up going to Idea Factory lol, that's a downgrade. Oh well, at least were still getting Paradox and Disgaea D2.
 
Terrible news for Nippon Ichi, especially after they finally managed to get another solid selling IP with The Witch and the Hundred Knights. Hopefully they'll be able to stabilize after this.
 

NotLiquid

Member
Mixed feelings on this.

On one hand, Idea Factory just got one of NIS' better talents. Bad for NIS, good for IF.

On the other hand, Idea Factory's games are pretty crap all things considered (despite being guilty pleasures), and I have my doubts that IF will be able to get the most out of his talents.
 

duckroll

Member
Mixed feelings on this.

On one hand, Idea Factory just got one of NIS' better talents. Bad for NIS, good for IF.

On the other hand, Idea Factory's games are pretty crap all things considered (despite being guilty pleasures), and I have my doubts that IF will be able to get the most out of his talents.

Idea Factory seems to be mostly just publishing and paying for the development of this game though. The implication is that the entire team jumped ship after KamiPara to make this new Vita RPG.

Terrible news for Nippon Ichi, especially after they finally managed to get another solid selling IP with The Witch and the Hundred Knights. Hopefully they'll be able to stabilize after this.

Well, if Takehito Harada indeed left N1 in the exodus as well, they might as well just close the entire company down.
 
Japanese blogs picking up on this story have pointed out that there was a big Nippon Ichi scandal rumor on 2ch way back in June. Someone posted details about a mass exodus from "Company N" with the following details (I've filled in the blanks for obvious references):

Considering the confirmation of the first part of the rumor, this sounds pretty bad for the future of the company.

Yikes. I wonder what happened at Nippon Ichi to drive everyone away.

Idea Factory seems to be mostly just publishing and paying for the development of this game though. The implication is that the entire team jumped ship after KamiPara to make this new Vita RPG.

Yeah, if this Vita RPG has the entire development team behind Z.H.P./Disgaea 4/KamiPara, there's no reason to expect its quality to be significantly different from those earlier works just because Idea Factory is publishing.
 
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