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[fedexpeon]

I have all of their Disgaea games, but I hate the series as well.
Too much grinding is involved, and the story is all over the place.

I will still buy the next installment even if the review is bad to prevent more JP companies thinking that JRPG doesn't sell over here in the West.

 

[Forkball]

Have they ported Disgaea 1 to the iWatch yet? That's always an option.

I'm surprised they haven't completely moved to handhelds. That seems to be where the market is for a lot of JRPGs. I know they have a lot of output on handhelds, but you gotta wonder if they're making money by putting stuff like The Witch and the Hundred Knight or The Guided Fate Paradox on consoles. They do port Disgaea games, but does anyone really care at that point? Other Japanese companies have put their big titles on handhelds (SMT, Monster Hunter, Nintendo putting real entries of a franchise on their handhelds instead of spinoffs etc.) and it has paid off.

 

[vinnygambini]

if any company were to outright purchase nis, i would assume it would be kadokawa. they seem to be looking to expand, and they already own from software, and i think also mages and possibly spike chunsoft through their merger with dwango. they would have quite the leverage in terms of franchises in the us, and an american branch pretty much all to themselves already preinstalled.

beyond that, i don't know who would be interested. koei tecmo perhaps, but that would probably be more due to the american side of things again.

Dwango pretty much is the only candidate who would purchase Nippon Ichi; the only other candidate would be Marvelous!, but with the recent disappointments at retail for their niche franchises, I wouldn't be so sure.

On a side note, how depressing is this to mention on the 20th anniversary on Playstation ;.;

 

[NormalFish]

Dwango pretty much is the only candidate who would purchase Nippon Ichi; the only other candidate would be Marvelous!, but with the recent disappointments at retail for their niche franchises, I wouldn't be so sure.

Marvelous! seems like a good fit, but I, too, think it's unlikely. Here's hoping if NIS is bought up, that's who buys.

 

[manfestival]

I have played all the disgaea games and finished all but 3 I think. I play pretty much every game that they release and my favorite is makai kingdom. This is sad news to be hearing. Hopefully japan pulls through and sales are decent enough here. Maybe sony can save them? wishful thinking?

I will pick up disgaea 5 and bloodborne but my wallet will hurt

 

[Yatōkiri_Kilgharrah]

Go multiplatform and see more sales

Xbox/PlayStation/PC

You guys dont get how game development and budgeting works do you?

Equally obviously, if you have the resources to make your games for more platforms, then you also gain the potential for many more sales and a far wider audience.

If you have the resources, that is.

Oh, and remind me who Feep works for again?

Time is money. Especially in game dev

 

[Aquamarine]

As of September 30th, 2014, NIS has 912.046 million JPY ($7.66 million) in cash on hand + in the bank, 1,984.904 million JPY ($16.7 million) in current assets. and 802.162 million JPY ($6.74 million) in current liabilities.


In the past 6 months (April 1st through September 30th), NIS has made 164.819 million JPY ($1.38 million) in operating income, and 79.647 million JPY ($669,000) in net income. These are sharp declines from the equivalent six month period last year.

 

[Kyou]

Dont' make promises you can't keep, Nippon Ichi!

 

[7threst]

It would be a shame to see NIS go but I'm not shedding any tears for them since I believe many of their problems are self-inflicted.

That's cold man
I think there is no guarantee for success, even more when you are operating in a niche like NIS does.

 

[ATXAlchemy]

Well... Disgaea DS was the 3rd port of the first one, and it was already available for PSP for 2 years.

They also made Witch's Tale

And they also put Marl Kingdom's first game on DS.

 

[theprodigy]

As of September 30th, 2014, NIS has 912.046 million JPY ($7.66 million) in cash on hand + in the bank, 1,984.904 million JPY ($16.7 million) in current assets. and 802.162 million JPY ($6.74 million) in current liabilities.


In the past 6 months (April 1st through September 30th), NIS has made 164.819 million JPY ($1.38 million) in operating income, and 79.647 million JPY ($669,000) in net income. These are sharp declines from the equivalent six month period last year.

these numbers feel so small when all we normally see are the first party+big third party financial reports lol

 

[Valnen]

I will be angry with the gaming community if they go out of business. Why can't I find this on Amazon? I'll cancel Bloodborne to afford this if need be.

 

[Yatōkiri_Kilgharrah]

Dwango pretty much is the only candidate who would purchase Nippon Ichi; the only other candidate would be Marvelous!, but with the recent disappointments at retail for their niche franchises, I wouldn't be so sure.

On a side note, how depressing is this to mention on the 20th anniversary on Playstation ;.;

Why not Tecmo Koei?

 

[OuterLimits]

Hmm, so character DLC will probably be $5 this time. 😁 I always buy characters from Disgaea 2 though, my favorite in the series.

Not being able to do a Vita port will likely hurt sales. Relying on the PS4 in Japan definitely seems suicidal.

 

[influentzar]

"We thought about going multi-platform with PlayStation 3, but doing so would've made the PS3 the standard," Niikawa said. "Since we're making it, I want to be able to offer something that could only be done with the PlayStation 4." As an example, Niikawa points out that Disgaea 5 will be able to feature 100 characters on screen simultaneously, where a PlayStation 3 version of the game could only handle 10.

Congrats, NIS, here's where your earlier statement and decision lead you.
Why not learn to optimize your game better, rather than moving on to new platform? You have user base on PS3, why gamble on PS4?
I'm a loyal Disgaea buyer, but to be honest, I only enjoy Disgaea 1 & 2 since the later games becomes convoluted and require more grinding.

And your other titles also need attention:
- Witch & 100 knights is disappointing
- I enjoy ZHP, but not Guided Fate Paradox (though I dig the song 'God and Illusory Garden')
- Prinny series is interesting, but not that special if you compare it to other platformers
- Rhapsody, where is it?

Selling the game on same day as Bloodborne eh? I do question your marketing strategy.

 

[Verder]

Well, RIP NIS.

Nails it . But damn.

RIP

 

[OmegaDL50]

Well...maybe this'll mean if Disgaea 5 gets localized in the US due to NIS's finance troubles they may not be able to afford to do a physical release.

I'll buy the game if it's digital only if NIS can save money on physical manufacturing in this case.

It's probably a much safer bet to do this since they don't need to worry about physical stock being sold back them that they can't even buy.

Just another way to go about this. Of course the nice physical merchandise that comes with a new Disgaea game pre-order like soundtracks CDs and novelty figurines may not is omitted in this regard.

It's a cost saving measure to keep afloat, then do what you must.

 

[AniHawk]

As of September 30th, 2014, NIS has 912.046 million JPY ($7.66 million) in cash on hand + in the bank, 1,984.904 million JPY ($16.7 million) in current assets. and 802.162 million JPY ($6.74 million) in current liabilities.


In the past 6 months (April 1st through September 30th), NIS has made 164.819 million JPY ($1.38 million) in operating income, and 79.647 million JPY ($669,000) in net income. These are sharp declines from the equivalent six month period last year.

i have to assume the decline comes from nothing as big as the witch and the hundred knight happening in that time.

 

[jackissocool]

Well...maybe this'll mean if Disgaea 5 gets localized in the US due to NIS's finance troubles they may not be able to afford to do a physical release.

I'll buy the game if it's digital only if NIS can save money on physical manufacturing in this case.

It's probably a much safer bet to do this since they don't need to worry about physical stock being sold back them that they can't even buy.

Just another way to go about this. Of course the nice physical merchandise that comes with a new Disgaea game pre-order like soundtracks CDs and novelty figurines may not is omitted in this regard.

It's a cost saving measure to keep afloat, then do what you must.

Maybe digital with a limited edition print run featuring a few goodies?

 

[OuterLimits]

Why not Tecmo Koei?

Hmmm, Disgaea Warriors? 😃

 

[AniHawk]

Well...maybe this'll mean if Disgaea 5 gets localized in the US due to NIS's finance troubles they may not be able to afford to do a physical release.

I'll buy the game if it's digital only if NIS can save money on physical manufacturing in this case.

It's probably a much safer bet to do this since they don't need to worry about physical stock being sold back them that they can't even buy.

Just another way to go about this. Of course the nice physical merchandise that comes with a new Disgaea game pre-order like soundtracks CDs and novelty figurines may not is omitted in this regard.

It's a cost saving measure to keep afloat, then do what you must.

there will be a physical release of disgaea 5.

 

[influentzar]

Hmmm, Disgaea Warriors? 😃

and why not?

 

[vinnygambini]

Why not Tecmo Koei?

Nope. Read their financial reports & presentations - this goes against their strategy to expand their reach + more collaborative titles (co-financed by other parties Square + Nintendo).

 

[Metroidvania]

Well, this is shitty.

NISA's had some questionable DLC prices for Disagea over the years, but losing both it and all of their other stuff would really be a shame. Gonna do my part and pick up a copy.

This also makes me miss DoubleJump guides. :/

 

[Ultimadrago]

Count me as someone who has completed a number of Disgaea in the past and will get the next installment, but wouldn't give a shit if NISA were to never create another game again.

They simply hold no priority for me while offering some experiences different enough to qualify as "curious" exclusives at most. If worst comes well...Peace.

 

[Yatōkiri_Kilgharrah]

Nope. Read their financial reports & presentations - this goes against their strategy to expand their reach + more collaborative titles (co-financed by other parties Square + Nintendo).

They bought gust

 

[OmegaDL50]

Congrats, NIS, here's where your earlier statement and decision lead you.
Why not learn to optimize your game better.

It has nothing to do with a lack of optimization. There is two posts I addressed in this topic about high resolution 2D objects being rendered on screen is a considerable memory demand.

The only thing you can do is make the sprites smaller res, which effects the fidelity of them to make them use less memory or removing frames of animation in attacks which has the detriment of motion looking choppy. That is really the only compromise or "optimization" you can do with 2D animation in this regard. Not really a reasonable expectation.

 

[Valnen]

Sub par compared to the competition.

What competition? Who's making stragtegy turn based RPG's on consoles these days?

This is why I get pissed when people ask for this series to evolve. Fuck that shit. There are too few turn based games on consoles these days.

 

[Clov]

They bought gust

Pretty sure Gust is a lot smaller than NIS.

 

[OuterLimits]

and why not?

I wouldn't terribly mind, since I love Hyrule Warriors. Not a big fan of Tecmo Koei though since they have forgotten my favorite series Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. Granted, that series sells worse than Disgaea.

 

[vinnygambini]

They bought gust

Gust was purchased in 2011 but operated as a separate entity from Tecmo Koei - they've recently merged their developers for more synergies in the company.

Gust is a drop in the bucket for Tecmo Koei; hence why they've re-organized the company.

Tecmo Koei ain't touching Nippon Ichi.

 

[Joni]

You have user base on PS3, why gamble on PS4?

The PlayStation 3 is a dead platform.

Selling the game on same day as Bloodborne eh? I do question your marketing strategy.

It wasn't their decision to release them on the same day.

 

[Patapwn]

Jeez Sony fucked them hard with that delay. And to think NIS has been so good to playstation

 

[dakkumauji]

Why not Tecmo Koei?

Buying NIS and thus NISA will finally give Koei-Tecmo an American branch!

 

[fedexpeon]

What competition? Who's making stragtegy turn based RPG's on consoles these days?

This is why I get pissed when people ask for this series to evolve. Fuck that shit. There are too few turn based games on consoles these days.

Well, one of the best Strategy-JRPG in years/decade came out recently, Tears to Tiara II.
I dropped most of the JRPG to play it, so yeah, there is still competition around if Atlus is releasing these type of games over the West just like NISA.
Right now though, Atlus is outperforming everyone in localizing and releasing contents.

 

[Biker19]

That sucks. It's a mistake to focus your Japanese support on a dead console there

Mobile or handheld.
Those thighs aren't dead.
PS4 is.

Or is it because they want to get more Japanese gamers on board with PS4?

If they truly care about the series, they'll suck it up & buy one for games like this.

 

[influentzar]

It has nothing to do with a lack of optimization. There is two posts I addressed in this topic about high resolution 2D objects being rendered on screen is a considerable memory demand.

The only thing you can do is make the sprites smaller res, which effects the fidelity of them to make them use less memory. That is really the only compromise you can do with 2D animation in this regard, or frames of animation in attacks which has the detriment of motion looking choppy.

That's a lame excuse, there's a lot of things you can do to optimize.
You could keep the idle, normal attack, and hurt animation on 1 atlas, the skills animation in other, loaded by demand. On bigger skills that uses more sprites they usually fade out all other character that are not involved anyway, that should free some memory while the skill active.
They also could divide the sprite needed to parts, and using bone animation so idling animation didn't spend more atlas than needed.
The problem being the developer put whole of them in one big atlas (2048x2048 or higher), and use frame-by-frame animation. Of course that would be demanding.

 

[Aquamarine]

Pretty sure Gust is a lot smaller than NIS.

I believe NIS has around 6 times as many employees as the core development team of GUST.

 

[OmegaDL50]

The PlayStation 3 is a dead platform.

By dead you mean it's no longer supported and games aren't still being released for it in Japan or Western Markets, then no, It's not dead.

 

[influentzar]

The PlayStation 3 is a dead platform.

not really, the user base for PS3 in Japan is still higher than Vita and PS4 combined, thanks to VN and things released on PS3. Though it looks like people started to shift to Vita, but not PS4, not yet anyway.

 

[Yatōkiri_Kilgharrah]

Marvelous! seems like a good fit, but I, too, think it's unlikely. Here's hoping if NIS is bought up, that's who buys.

Marvelous just bought FromSoftware

 

[AniHawk]

Marvelous just bought FromSoftware

kadokawa bought from software.

 

[Yatōkiri_Kilgharrah]

Well, one of the best Strategy-JRPG in years/decade came out recently, Tears to Tiara II.
I dropped most of the JRPG to play it, so yeah, there is still competition around if Atlus is releasing these type of games over the West just like NISA.
Right now though, Atlus is outperforming everyone in localizing and releasing contents.

Summon night 5 tho

 

[Replicant]

LOL @ people suggesting porting the games. They can barely break even on one platform and you want them to take risk and spend more development porting games for what could be smaller percentage of audience than what they already have. The reality is, they have done cost/benefit analysis and found that there's not enough profit to be made in porting their game.

 

[OuterLimits]

Well, one of the best Strategy-JRPG in years/decade came out recently, Tears to Tiara II.
I dropped most of the JRPG to play it, so yeah, there is still competition around if Atlus is releasing these type of games over the West just like NISA.
Right now though, Atlus is outperforming everyone in localizing and releasing contents.

I love SRPGs(my favorite genre) and hadn't heard of this game. Seems to have good reviews on Amazon. Is it available on PSN? It's only $30 on Amazon right now. Does it have a fun battle system?

 

[vinnygambini]

Marvelous just bought FromSoftware

wut

 

[influentzar]

kadokawa bought from software.

so, Lunar with Bloodborne system, anyone?

 

[Yatōkiri_Kilgharrah]

kadokawa bought from software.

EDIT: nevermind

 

[FourMyle]

Sucks to see another small small/mid size company go but their games were really shitty. They really didn't have the talent to do anything truly good outside of Disgaea, which they already milked to death.

 

[Valnen]

Well, one of the best Strategy-JRPG in years/decade came out recently, Tears to Tiara II.
I dropped most of the JRPG to play it, so yeah, there is still competition around if Atlus is releasing these type of games over the West just like NISA.
Right now though, Atlus is outperforming everyone in localizing and releasing contents.

I'm not seeing how that looks so much superior graphically/artistically.