Topic: Marvelous Switches To Licensing Model, Sells Stake In Rising Star Games

http://www.destructoid.com/marvelous-stops-overseas-distribut...

Does anybody know something more about this ? Do you think it will affect Rising Star in bringing totally awesome Japanese games that other companies don't give a f¨*$k about to the west ?

EDIT:
Just noticed the original source has some more info:

Marvelous announced today they sold their 50% stake in Rising Star Games to Intergrow, a Japanese company that handles video, PC, and mobile phone games. Intergrow actually has a deal with Bergsala too. Those two companies formed Gamebridge, a London based publisher that handles Japanese games such as Happy Party with Hello Kitty and Friends and Overturn for WiiWare. This may explain why Rising Star Games and Gamebridge are working together on Way of the Samurai 3.

For future overseas releases, Marvelous will use a licensing model. Overseas publishers like Atlus, Ubisoft, Ignition, Xseed, and now Rising Star Games will have to bid for rights to Marvelous titles. Series developed by Marvelous include Harvest Moon, Luminous Arc, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and No More Heroes.

So, basically, instead of publishing it themselves (well, almost), they're going to go to whoever pays the most cash.

I still think Rising Star is going to get the majority of their games, however.

Yeah, you might be right. But I think since this is going to mean a considerable extra cost, they might take less risks with the more edgy games, wich will result in we net gettin those games in the west.

Rising Star is privately held, so there might not be as much pressure on them to perform as a big outfit like Capcom. Without knowing what games have been profitable for them it's impossible to say how this will affect their strategy. Europe doesn't really have a lot of indie publishers bringing over Japanese games outside of small players like Midas Interactive and Nordcurrent. I think the only competition Rising Star really has is Ubisoft and Ignition Entertainment.

It will be interesting to see what happens, but I think we'll still see good stuff from Rising Star in the future -- it's not like they're completely dependent upon Marvellous for content (see Fragile and Ju-On).