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Cyber Front (JP pub of western games such as Skullgirls) closes down

J

Jubern

Member
You read that right. The Japanese publisher for Skullgirls, Cyber Front, had been dissolved by its parent company as of today. They were mosltly known for localizing western games such as the Civilization series, Half-Life series, Doom III... (edit: Look down for a list of recent releases, thanks to Infernal Monkey!)

Just looking at the games they've published, that looks like a pretty serious hit for Japanese people who like western games...
I'm not sure what it means for Skullgirls exactly but I can't imagine its good. Forgive me for the lack of details as I'm on my phone.

Japanese speakers can check the following link for more info :
http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/7461069.html

Official dissolution announcement (also in Japanese, thanks to djplaeskool):
http://www.cyberfront.co.jp/info.pdf

Infernal Monkey said:
Just a few examples of what CyberFront published in recent years...

51LTFZ2eVDL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
51SCRwBF2YL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
51FPAMWyiTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


51ejEZvEULL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
61mcMm-0DfL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
51oPl%2BwoEUL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


51Rd2SYdVvL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
51iftPM1lQL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
511jAw8cFPL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
Click to expand...
 
S

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
I feel like there should be a Skullgirls equivalent to the Bad Luck Brian quickmeme at this point.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Should get Half Life in the title to really draw in a crowd!

Actually, that really does highlight how serious this could be, damn.

EDIT: And I see Walking Dead and Crusader Kings II's icons there.... yeah, holy fuck.
 
J

Jubern

Member
Eusis said:
Should get Half Life in the title to really draw in a crowd!

Actually, that really does highlight how serious this could be, damn.

EDIT: And I see Walking Dead and Crusader Kings II's icons there.... yeah, holy fuck.
Click to expand...

You're right, somehow I didn't thought about those because in my mind it was "Skullgirls, AGAIN?!" Sorry.
I actually saw The Walking Dead retail box with their logo and everything in a store yesterday, too.

In a fucking Donki of all places.

Daaaaamn.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
I think at this point console manufacturers should just let Skullgirls onto their platforms for free. "You know what? You've gone through enough as it is."
 
S

SolarPowered

Member
I just found out on the SG IRC. I swear to God that some undiscovered cosmic phenomena has to be bending time and space itself to fuck with Skullgirls. My condolences to those affected at Cyber Front. Hopefully they land on their feet and other games under their care find a new home.
 
O

Ogawa-san

Member
It sounds like LabZero didn't see it coming, considering they were working with them for Encore's japanese re-release.

I'm starting to wonder if LZ devs worked with the Dreamcast back in the time. That's one hell of a curse, holy shit...
 
T

Takao

Banned
TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
I must have missed something about Skullgirls.
What other unfortunate events did the team experience?
Click to expand...

  • Autumn Games signs Skullgirls with Reverge Labs
  • Autumn Games is required to sign a publishing agreement with a major publisher in order to acquire an XBLA slot for the game, and decides to extend its existing publishing agreement for DefJam Rapstar with Konami
  • DefJam Rapstar is released just after the music game crash, and doesn’t perform to expectations
  • City National Bank sues Konami and Autumn Games for not paying back the loan taken out to finance DefJam Rapstar
  • City National Bank’s claim on Autumn’s income scares away potential investors, making it impossible to raise money or sell the IP to another publisher that could continue funding development
  • Due to a lack of funding, Autumn Games cancels production on Squigly in June 2012, resulting in the layoff of most of the Skullgirls staff from Reverge Labs
  • The laid off Skullgirls staff reform as Lab Zero, Inc. and continue its work on Skullgirls with Autumn Games’ blessing, releasing the first patch, “Slightly Different Edition”
  • Lab Zero begins seeking other projects to develop, but it’s slow and the team is running out of money
  • In a last-ditch move to keep the team together, Lab Zero starts an Indiegogo campaign to fund Skullgirls DLC characters, and raises over $830,000, enough for 5 total characters developed over the course of around 16 months
  • The first IGG-funded DLC character Squigly is released alongside the Steam PC version of Skullgirls
  • Development of the console patch begins immediately after the PC version is released
  • Testing is completed on the console patch a few weeks later by independent testing house Digital Hearts
  • Konami and Autumn Games settle their lawsuit out of court
  • Konami refuses to submit the patch unless they also fully test it, at great expense to Lab Zero
  • Autumn Games severs its distribution arrangement with Konami to clear the way for the IGG-funded DLC patches
  • Autumn signs an agreement with MarvelousAQL to provide a replacement slot for the XBLA version
  • Konami moves to have Skullgirls delisted on PSN as of 12/17/2013, which we find out about from Sony while starting the transition
  • Konami agrees to delay the delisting until 12/31/2013 on PSN
Click to expand...

http://labzerogames.com/skullgirls-encore-and-you/
 
S

SolarPowered

Member
Hazaro said:
And somewhere in there all of them are working on shoestring budget with no office and at least a few weeks without income(?)

Absurd.
Click to expand...
They will be receiving payment while they continue to make the remaining four DLC characters (Big Band, Eliza, Beowulf and Robo Fortune) thanks to the IGG campaign, but it's a fraction of what they would be earning if they were being funded by a traditional publisher. It's not good pay for most of them who live in LA iirc so some take part time jobs or find other game projects to pay the bills. Mike did work on the Slightly different edition patch for free for months on end, though.
 
K

Khaz

Member
Jubern said:
You read that right. The Japanese publisher for Skullgirls, Cyber Front, had been dissolved by its parent company as of today. They were mosltly known for localizing western games such as the Civilization series, Half-Life series, Doom III...

I'm not sure what it means for Skullgirls exactly but I can't imagine its good. Forgive me for the lack of details as I'm on my phone.

Japanese speakers can check the following link for more info :
http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/7461069.html
Click to expand...

So all these IP are now locked down? No one else can publish them in Japan?
No Half-Life 3 for Japan?
 
C

CrovaxPSO

Member
They have a game, Tokyo New World Record Operation Abyss, scheduled for release in January. I wonder if that will be affected.
 
J

Jubern

Member
djplaeskool said:
ok, if I'm scanning the dissolution announcement correctly, Cyber Front as an entity is being absorbed into KAGA ELECTRONICS, who acquired a 51% majority stake in the company back in April 2010. So....this will likely mean current projects are safe and there may or may not be a rebranding and further developments later. Ball is in KAGA's court right now.
Click to expand...

Nope, they've been a 100% owned subsidiary of Kaga Electronics since March since year, actually. The dissolution announcement (thanks for the link) confirms they've been purely and simply disbanded.

CrovaxPSO said:
They have a game, Tokyo New World Record Abyss, scheduled for release in January. I wonder if that will be affected.
Click to expand...

djplaeskool said:
God damnit, I hope not.
I REALLY REALLY hope not.
Click to expand...

The boss of the dev company for that game came out on Twitter a few hours ago, saying they haven't been told anything officially about this situation. He seems pretty shocked so he might actually have discovered it along with us...
 
W

wildfire

Banned
SolarPowered said:
I just found out on the SG IRC. I swear to God that some undiscovered cosmic phenomena has to be bending time and space itself to fuck with Skullgirls. My condolences to those affected at Cyber Front. Hopefully they land on their feet and other games under their care find a new home.
Click to expand...

The only logically explanation is Alex Ahab is in possession of the Skullheart.

Considering the list of games they published I think there is more to the story. The most recent posts about who owns them should give us a reason to wait for more news about how Japan will get more western dev games.
 
S

sörine

Banned
Sad news, Cyberfront put out a lot of VNs and western games. I wonder if Kaga might simply be consolidating their various gaming brands under the Kaga Create label now though? They've been publishing Virtual Console and Game Archives titles under that for awhile now.
 
D

DracoBlade

Member
A portent of whats to come. Japan needs to really step up its game in the console space....And I thought things were going to get better with creators genuinely following Inafune, Mikami, Kamiya, hell even Suda 51's persistence/dedication to console games... What happened japan? You made/rarely still make my favorite games :(

mobile WHY! ;(
 
C

Crab Milk Mickey

Member
They published some good games. Would be interesting to see a list of sale numbers for some of those.

Hazaro said:
And somewhere in there all of them are working on shoestring budget with no office and at least a few weeks without income(?)

Absurd.
Click to expand...
There used to be a time where Microsoft also got in the way of their patch releases for weeks (consecutively), to the point where it also negatively influenced when the PS3 version would be receiving its updates.
 
A

alstein

Member
Kazama Sogetsu said:
It sounds like LabZero didn't see it coming, considering they were working with them for Encore's japanese re-release.

I'm starting to wonder if LZ devs worked with the Dreamcast back in the time. That's one hell of a curse, holy shit...
Click to expand...

Mike Z's engine was originally designed for the Dreamcast.

Skullgirls curse indeed. Will some publisher please give these guys a hand?
 
D

djplaeskool

Member
Jubern said:
The boss of the dev company for that game came out on Twitter a few hours ago, saying they haven't been told anything officially about this situation. He seems pretty shocked so he might actually have discovered it along with us...
Click to expand...

Oh boy...
Thanks for the clarification.
 
I

icecream

Public Health Threat
Will always remember them for saving 12RIVEN, but it was inevitable once 5pb became a superpower player in the field and took over KID's big franchises.

But at least we got a Cross Channel and Kazoku Keikaku remake before it all ended...
 
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