Some disappointing news today as XSEED Games has made a statement regarding Rodea: The Sky Soldier. As you may know, the game was re-revealed last week by Famitsu as a Wii U and 3DS title. And if you remember back to when it was a Wii game, XSEED had shown interest in the title.
Late last night, a representative of XSEED put the breaks on any hype.
There’s a few things to take away from this. First, XSEED is a different company than it was when it first showed interest in the game back in 2011. Heck, the XSEED that we knew back in 2011 doesn’t technically exist anymore. It’s just a brand name for Marvelous USA. This could explain the change of interest in the game.
Another thing could be that XSEED is feeling a pinch from its parent company’s current financial outlook, which is a bit worse than normal. Because of this, XSEED may be looking to tighten the purse strings and become more careful with which games it invests in. Adding a potential large game with a potentially large script to translate could bring potential financial struggles that the parent company may not want to add to its burden.
But there is a silver lining here: XSEED may be looking at lower licensing costs for bringing over the game. That’s speculative, but not without backing. Organizations in all fields will try to play hardball like this. In a business where there are good options looking for one of a handful of places to land, one place might appear uninterested as a way to drive away suspicion. This is done so that they can come back later with a lower offer than they would’ve needed in the first place, which may result in a lower price tag. It’s a bit of a risk, but not one without merit or precedent in other lines of business.
And one more thing to remember from this: Ken’s exact wording.
“We have no plans to pursue [Rodea: The Sky Soldier] at this time.”
It’s far from a definitive answer either way. Remember, the game has just been re-revealed. It is far away from its Japanese release, and there are plenty of other publishers that have the means and the know-how that may be trying to get a deal done as well, which would explain why he couldn’t give anything definitive.
I can guarantee that the saga that is Rodea: The Sky Soldier‘s development/localization is far from over. We’ll let you know when more comes up.
