XSEED Games – the company that gave North American gamers the superb Retro Game Challenge – has announced that it will no longer be distributing Vanillaware’s upcoming 2D masterpiece Muramasa: The Demon Blade.
The statement runs as follows:
XSEED Games confirms that it is no longer involved with the North American release of Muramasa: The Demon Blade. XSEED Games and Marvelous had previously announced the game as part of the initial line up between the two publishing partners. We firmly believe in the product and will look forward to seeing it release in North America. We enjoy and respect our relationship with Marvelous, and are committed to working together to deliver an amazing line up of games in the US including the highly anticipated Little King's Story, the epic RPG Arc Rise Fantasia and Suda51's intriguing mystery adventure Flower, Sun, Rain.
Why XSEED would choose to drop this of all the titles it’s intending to release is beyond us – the game is looking absolutely fantastic. Perhaps the difficulty of selling ‘hardcore’ games on the Wii has made the publisher think twice? Whatever the reason, we imagine that the game will get snapped up fairly quickly by another company (if that isn't the case already).
Update: Looks like it's been picked up by Ignition. Good job!
[source kotaku.com]
Comments 25
Wow, I can't believe they just dropped it all of a sudden. How odd.
Flower Sun and Rain? Wasn't that out for a while already? I've even seen it in the bargain bins.
The European release for Muramasa was something like spring next year, the US release was supposed to be much earlier but I wonder if the discrepancy will remain this large now?
I'm enjoying the Japanese version and i hope that the rest of the world will have a chance to play it soon!
I suggest to renamed the "Wii" as "Noo".
Yeah... argggghhhh!!! Though someone I know has apparently stated that a new publisher has been found, just not mentioned yet. Let's hope that is true...
Yeah, this better be picked up by someone if a publisher knows what goods for them. I think the art style will attract "non-hardcore" gamers as well so its sales should be decent.
Art styles don't attact non-hardcores, they repell them.
Hope we see it in Europe, looks good, plus its 2D, I'd buy it.
We should. Marvelous has a European subsidary; Rising Star Games. They tend to a little slow though. Currently their projected release date for the game is 2010
As for the US release. I hope Ubisoft is publishing it only to see the so-called hardcore gamers reaction.
I've waited nearly a year for Williams Pinball; I can wait until 2010 for this. Hopefully this will still make a September/November release for NA.
Ugh, this sucks. I was looking forward to this game more than any other this year.
Oh no. This was one of the most keenly anticipated games as far as I know. 2010 for Europe you guys say? Ah well, I'll have to satisfy myself with the other stuff coming out this year
I have a feeling that XSEED didn't "drop" it and that another publisher picked it up. This screams an Atlus release to me.
aggh, is there a company email address at vanillaware/marvelous to express support for finding an american publisher?
Aw man, that sucks! Why would they just drop it like that? Oh well, maybe Sega will pick it up.
@KDR_11k:
"Art styles don't attact non-hardcores, they repell them."
How is that possible? Don't all games have an art style? (Apart from, say, text adventures?)
"This screams an Atlus release to me."
Ubisoft is more likely, considering that they already published No More Heroes for Marvelous.
You know who SHOULD publish this game? Nintendo. Make up for not bringing Fatal Frame 4 and Crisis over here...
UK/EU publisher is Rising Star games who are bringing us another Marvellous title before the rest of the universe on Friday: Little King's Story. Oh yeahhhh.
Rising Star rules! Now if they could get Fragile, that would be super sweet!
Picked up by Ignition Entertaiment:
http://wii.ign.com/articles/974/974820p1.html
Yay Ignition to the rescue!!
Phew! Close call! Marvelous needs to stop toying with our emotions.
So Ignition is putting it out then? Thank God! I almost had a heart attack when I read this story! This is easily the most anticipated game for me on Wii! I would have imported it just to play it but glad it doesn't have to come to that! I hope XSEED doesn't end up dropping Little King Story or Arc Rise Fantasia next. So is this a result of the Madworld effect? I fear for the fates of upcoming "hardcore" games like The Conduit and Cursed Mountain. I wish Atlus was the one releasing Muramasa but as long as somebody is doing it thats all that matters! Although, isn't Ignition the same company that brought us Lux Pain on DS? Should we be worried?
It could have been Marvelous's decision or a mutual decision. I wouldn't go about blaming XSeed without knowing the full scoop.
For a moment I felt like posting the following comment...
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Thankfully, I can still look forward to playing this game. This is one of the very few disc releases that I'm really waiting for, but I am concerned about XSEED's other games. Little King Story, if my memory is correct, was supposed to come out already, but was delayed an extra 5 months. Hopefully XSEED still can publish the games WolfRamHeart is talking about, since they lost a ton of (future) profit by not publishing Muramasa, and these two games still look very interesting.
Edit: @WolfRamHeart- Ignition has a very good recent history with Wii Games. They have published Mercury Meltdown Revolution (9/10 on Nintendolife), Samurai Shodown Anthology (9/10), Metal Slug Anthology (8/10), SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 (8/10), and King of Fighters Collection: Orochi Saga (7/10). For now, this game is in good hands.
I almost had a heart attack.
Thank you Ignition!!
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