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Idea Factory International (new branch of Idea Factory). established today
- Thread starter Volcynika
- Start date
Wow, looks like the rumor of the huge N1 bailout is really true. Haru Akenaga must be "Mr A" who is the "North American Corporate Head" who resigned last year and is now helping with Idea Factory with Masahiro Yamamoto's new Vita RPG. He was also superviser on Mugen Souls Z so he's been working with them for a while.
RIP NIS.
RIP NIS.
GloriousBagel
Banned
More Moe games coming to NA and EU.
My body is ready.
My body is ready.
darkside31337
Tomodachi wa Mahou
This is exciting!
Damn! D:
The Grim Heaper
Member
Cool!
I wonder if a future of just licensing out their IP is viable? Though that basically means a skeleton crew while those who jumped ship and are at Idea Factory would probably be effectively the new NIS anyway. Do wonder about the future of their NA branch though, would be sort of funny if that somehow just became its own thing similar to Xseed or Aksys.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
NISA is dead. Long live Idea Factory International.
Would not have anticipated writing those words before yesterday.
Would not have anticipated writing those words before yesterday.
Dedication Through Light
Member
I hope this means we can get the Hakuoki movies faster in America
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
Well I'd say I'm sorry N1 is dying but hearing about how they were treating the employees makes me welcome Idea Factory with open arms.
dakkumauji
Member
More importantly what's gonna happen with Danganronpa! (And NISA of course)
djplaeskool
Member
This is part of why I'm wondering if NISA could end up being more its own thing as NIS itself flounders. And he's been gone for almost a year now, so I doubt it'd affect Danganronpa short of a very soon, complete collapse, but I expect that'd take awhile.
Would be kind of amusing though if we saw them taking on more things like that and less the kind of fare you'd usually see out of Idea Factory, almost like if the parts people most likely didn't like got spun off.
Black Door
Banned
So this basically confirms that NIS is dead. Wonder what the US branch will do.
Hcoregamer00
The 'H' stands for hentai.
Whoa!! What the heck???
DAT NEPTUNIA MONEY.
I guess Idea Factory saw all the dollar bills they were missing out on and decided to take the helm of their franchises in the West.
DAT NEPTUNIA MONEY.
I guess Idea Factory saw all the dollar bills they were missing out on and decided to take the helm of their franchises in the West.
NIS has been putting out a LOT of titles, or presenting a lot of in-development ones as of late; could a cut in their workforce just = less output? They'd probably end up needed to do this to develop on upcoming consoles anyway, this could be an OK time for a shakeup, couldn't it?
It's cool that Idea Factory has a further reaching arm now, though.
Would this actually mean some of their designs and ideas in games might be created with more "worldwide" appeal, as well? I wouldn't be against that at all, if done well.
I look forward to seeing what this all leads to. This is weird news, along with 5pb. announcing more intent to release games in the US. Looks much more likely to get certain niche JP games out in the US going forward...
It's cool that Idea Factory has a further reaching arm now, though.
(I still wanna play Spectral VS Generation!)
I look forward to seeing what this all leads to. This is weird news, along with 5pb. announcing more intent to release games in the US. Looks much more likely to get certain niche JP games out in the US going forward...
Hcoregamer00
The 'H' stands for hentai.
Hope this means we'll get a localization.
Not gonna happen, a niche idol game for a niche console.
Neptunia Rebirth 1 and 2, sure that will happen, but Neptunia PP is not going to happen.
This is... quite unexpected. I'm always up for more localization companies, but I hope NISA stays alive. At least for a little longer. I need my Super Danganronpa 2!
It'll be interesting to see if this company ends up localizing other companies games, along with Idea Factory and Compile Heart's titles.
It'll be interesting to see if this company ends up localizing other companies games, along with Idea Factory and Compile Heart's titles.
I'm inclined to believe that the biggest reason this is happening is because the ex-Disgaea Team is now making games for Idea Factory and they want full monetization of that worldwide, basically replacing NIS' segment of the market.
It's unlikely, but most people don't think we'd get Danganronpa or a localized Miku game. It likely wouldn't cost too much to localize Neptune PP as a PSN only release if they thought a retail one wasn't viable.
like atlus, the us branch has been very successful the time it's been around. not sure what their future holds though.
Hcoregamer00
The 'H' stands for hentai.
Danganronpa had an anime and had quite a following in the USA before the anime came out, Miku had a concert at Anime Expo and also has quite a following in the Anime Convention Circuit.
Neptunia just got an anime, but it was influenced by the games and not this idol spinoff. Again, it is a niche within a niche.
Well they got the Imageepoch deal so as long as NIS Japan is around they will be fine.
Wasn't the game's localization announced before the anime aired? The US following was mostly based around the Let's Play on Something Awful, I thought.
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
The first episode aired two days before the US announcement so I say that assessment is a bit off.
dakkumauji
Member
Time and Eternity 2 you say?
The anime started in the same month as the announcement. Most of the US following started on the Let's Play and I guess Tumblr.
Hcoregamer00
The 'H' stands for hentai.
Well, it had a following before the anime came out. I was doing photoshoots with cosplayers from the series 2 years before the anime came out
Yeah, the anime portion of NISA has been quite profitable. They carved quite a good market within the anime world.
next year should be pretty full (they would have had to have signed deals long before any of the current rumors started happening, if they are true), but it's 2015 and afterward that worries me.
-potentially losing atlus (european business)
-potentially losing idea factory (neptunia franchise)
-losing gust (atelier franchise, ar tonelico franchise)
-less people in nisj (disgaea 5 is maybe the next big internal title?)
on the other hand they seem to have a working relationship with spike chunsoft and kodakawa if danganronpa and demon gaze are any indication. and their anime business has only been growing in recent years.
They've been successful, but they've just lost two of their bigger licensees within a rather short window.
Granted, they aren't losing any *good* games because of this alone, but losing talent to Idea Factory can't make the situation any better for them or the main branch.
Idea Factory also has a pretty decent relationship with Spike, so there's no telling if they might be able to lure them away from NIS, too.
This is a joke, right?
Seriously though I think Danganronpa may be a hint at as to their future: Disgaea may well be effectively decimated, Atelier's gone with KT and some of their ex-localizers (though that raises other issues), and Idea fatory will likely be handling it themselves unless that US company will be working with others to publish their games. However Danganronpa definitely appeals to some of their current/old base and the periphery one (which I'd probably count as) that may've liked some of their NIS titles and maybe SOME of the stuff they localized, but otherwise was mostly apathetic to their output. If they can get more of that they may be able to rope in that periphery audience as becoming part of their core.
Elaugaufein
Member
Yet another website to add to my compulsively check list. Wee.
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
So NISA lose Neptunia and Aksys lose Hakuoki, huh? Hmm, don't know what to think just yet.
Outside of games, NISA has a pretty decent foothold in the anime business, so I wouldn't count them out just yet.
Outside of games, NISA has a pretty decent foothold in the anime business, so I wouldn't count them out just yet.
i know that the Neptune anime was inspired by the games, I've played all of them. I don't really expect the idol game to get localized but I wouldn't rule it out.
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
They'd probably localize it to capitalize on things if sales are good since it has the same familiar characters the audience enjoys.
i don't think idea factory international is fully operational yet. they would need at least a couple people to handle marketing, operations, production (art + trailers), and translation + editing. and even that would mean moving a pace of about a game at a time. i wouldn't be surprised if you see these games sublicensed out to aksys and nisa for a while.
Nippon Ichi is a listed company in Japan though, so we'll probably have some sort of forecast update in the near future. If they don't say anything at all to their shareholders, that would probably be an even worse sign.
Yeah I don't think this has an immediate impact on anything, but rather this is a longer term plan mainly for the game(s) they plan on releasing in 2014.