No More Heroes Publisher Sticking to Sequels

[vansau]

No More Heroes Publisher Sticking to Sequels

After a rough fiscal year, game publisher Marvelous Entertainment has announced that it's moving away from original games and sticking with sequels instead.

Marvelous Entertainment is dramatically changing the way it operates after a particularly ugly fiscal year. <a href=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397445>According to a NeoGAF post, the company is selling off its European division, and will stop distributing its own games overseas. Though no official announcement has been made, it seems likely that Marvelous will license its titles to other publishers for international releases. Worst of all, Marvelous is moving away from original games and will only be focusing on sequels.

Over the past few years, Marvelous has been involved with several original games that died ugly deaths when they hit the market. Titles like <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_More_Heroes_(video_game)#Sales>No More Heroes, [http://www.amazon.com/Little-Kings-Story-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001COVME6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1276195743&sr=1-1] had a particularly disappointing performance in Japan, though it performed a little better in North America and Europe. Little King's Story received critical acclaim, but the game's sales were lukewarm at best. As a result, Cing, the game's developer recently went bankrupt.

According to the NeoGaf post: "MMV producer Wada says that they don't want to die like CING did. So they're going to cease developing/funding any new IPs in the foreseeable future."

Marvelous Entertainment has a solid number of popular IPs in its game catalogue, such as Harvest Moon and [http://www.amazon.com/Valhalla-Knights-Sony-PSP/dp/B000MR5OBQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1276195797&sr=1-2]; putting out sequels to these established franchises seems like a safe way to operate until the company's finances are once again stable. The company has also expressed an interest in working on projects for the 3DS when it arrives next year, as well as working on some "online browser games."

It sounds like the company is in trauma mode, doing its best to try and stay afloat. Hopefully, Marvelous Entertainment will be able to get back into the business of original games in the future, but it sounds like this new publishing plan will be a permanent operating procedure for the foreseeable future.

Source: Gamememo via <a href=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397445>NeoGAF via <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/marvelous-sticking-to-sequels-in-future>EuroGamer.

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[Deofuta]

Hmmm well it is hard to go wrong with series such as Harvest Moon, such a dedicated fan base.

Although not making any new IP's kinds hurts.

 

[MaxwellMouse]

It's sucks that the company has to resort to this. Deadly Premonition and No more heroes were great fun.

 

[Cheesebob]

Won't the company have to have unique games to get sequals?

 

[Irridium]

Wow that sucks.
No More Heroes not selling well makes me a sad panda.

 

[zombie711]

well the only good thing i see from this is that no more heros paridise will most likley not find a way to europe or usa. (yes i own a wii)

 

[Jeronus]

I hope this means No More Heroes 3. I think the should move the series to the more hardcore consoles anyway. I am sure it will definitely find a bigger market there. I loved it on the Wii but I would definitely buy an HD NMH even after beating both games on the WII.

 

[Morthas]

Wow i have to admid i only got No More Heroes out of those

P.S. How the hell did NMH not sell well in japan i thought it was a winning recipe for japan =/

 

[Nimbus]

That's fine by me. The industry needs a balance between improvement through iteration, and innovation.

 

[Jaker the Baker]

Maybe they wouldn't have seen such a dip in income if they had released for consoles people care about? Just a guess
Move and Natal are on the horizon, release an HD port collection of the first two NMH's just in time to release the third on those consoles! I personally love the NMH series

 

[Jared]

If they can still make epic games like "No More Heroes" I dont trhink I will complain. Im not a huge Wii game fan but this one really did rawk my socks, so to speak!

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Is any small publisher who is launching new mid budget console games doing well?

 

[Podunk]

I read this, and I tried to feel sad, but all I can think is: C'mooon, No More Heroes 3!

 

[Quaidis]

I will have to keep buying these games when they come out. I have been pretty up to date with HarvestMoon.

 

[Littaly]

Sooo, the company that publishes Harvest Moon wants to do online browser games... I wonder...

 

[Artemus_Cain]

Start by making your sequels to No More Heroes stop sucking. Desperate Struggle was a cheap slap in the face to people who loved the original.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Start by making your sequels to No More Heroes stop sucking. Desperate Struggle was a cheap slap in the face to people who loved the original.

To be fair, they improved the combat. To be unfair, that fucking ending was about as satisfying as the last Matrix movie. Just an ending with 50 billion unsolved plot points, and some random Messiah/romance crap. The No More Hero. What The Fuck is that supposed to mean? What happened to that awesome painting, or Jeane the little girl?

Anyways, this sounds like they're only milking franchises because they're legs are about to break, rather than to weaken the bones of originality, like Activision with the Tony Hawk games. THAW is still the best Tony Hawk game.

 

[xyrafhoan]

Wow i have to admid i only got No More Heroes out of those

P.S. How the hell did NMH not sell well in japan i thought it was a winning recipe for japan =/

Japan hates bloody, uber-violent games. They'd rather have ~*kawaii*~ date sim games or Dragon Quest.

On the other hand, I was hoping for Rune Factory 3 to come out on the DS and this announcement pretty much killed my hopes, even if RF3 is a sequel. RF2 and RF Frontier didn't do so well despite being good games...

 

[crotalidian]

This does set a dangerour precedent. If it works then any company that starts to see a dip in profits may decide to go the same way which can only hurt the industry. Why not work on sequels but also start using smaller teams to release interesting games on Steam, PSN, XBLA etc. that way they can still work on new IPs which will allow them to keep their creative guys happy, but with much less risk and cost, plus it could turn out a new Shadow Complex!