Cognition Dissemination: Welcome Spike Chunsoft to Steam

I’ve made a number of posts in the past regarding the increasing amount of Japanese games hitting PC, a phenomenon that’s been on a significant uptick in the last few months. But it also shows how some movements can take time to get going. Japanese indie (or “doujin” if you’re a stickler for Japanese terms)title  Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale, translated by CarpeFulgur, nearly singlehandedly showed how a market for niche Japanese games exists on Steam. Yet we’re only starting to see the country’s developers and publishers jump on this opportunity over five years after that title released.

My last post on this primarily focused on Nippon Ichi Software’s Disgaea PC, an upgraded port of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (itself an enhanced PSP version of the original PS2 title) which will represent NIS America’s larger dip into the PC market when it arrives next month. Also, after numerous requests in the last couple of years, Capcom finally released a PC version of Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, so people can play it bereft of its egregious last-generation console constraints. Falcom’s exploits on the platform have also been well documented, though their titles are coming through XSeed. And don’t forget Idea Factory, whose Neptunia titles are some of the best-selling Japanese RPGs on the platform. That should also show you how few niche JRPGs are currently available.

The newest company making a move is Spike Chunsoft, which was honestly a case of “when” than “if” given their methods. Localization companies have previously discussed how enthusiastic they often are with giving them the rights to localize their titles for the worldwide market, though some have been too niche for even them to consider. In a way, Clan of Champions (Gladiator Vs. in Japan) somewhat counts as their first effort despite being published in western territories by NIS America. This time, though, they’re trying it with a game of theirs people actually want to play (no offense to anyone who enjoyed Clan of Champions): the Danganronpa series.

Sure, these titles were expected after entries for both (among many other titles) were discovered in Steam’s database early in December, but it’s always nice when the publisher confirms these themselves — especially when they’re coming sooner than expected. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc will hit Steam sometime next month, and as an extra nudge, early purchases will include a digital soundtrack. It should be up for preorder momentarily, depending on how early it’s coming in February.

It was subsequently revealed in a Siliconera article that Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is also coming in the near future, and that both titles represent the start of Spike Chunsoft’s PC push. This is presumably being done not only for the opportunity to make money from releasing archived titles for western PC players, but to release newer titles that arrive on dedicated systems in at least a nigh-simultaneous manner. That’s essentially Idea Factory’s strategy, and it’s not like they trademarked it.

Of course, they’ll only achieve success with quality ports. As in, they should make sure not to take Koei Tecmo’s misguided approach, who seemed to think PC customers would line up to buy their ports regardless of quality. That’s a good way to show people they really don’t care, and the community responded by rewarding them with pitiful sales. This will mark Spike Chunsoft’s first significant step into the western publishing market, with a requisite English district, so there’s slight reason for concern; but let’s not get too negative just yet.

In addition to the Zero Escape games potentially hitting Steam, which could already be part of the plan, I’d p like to see them reach into Chunsoft’s archive of roguelikes. Sega and Atlus USA tried to establish the Shiren the Wanderer franchise in America through the DS and Wii titles, and both reportedly sold poorly. But there’s a sizable audience for the genre on PC, which explains why many small projects released on digital platforms include roguelike elements. I’d love to see the installments that escaped our shores localized for Steam releases, particularly the “Plus” versions of Shiren the Wanderer 4 and 5.

In fairness, an audience for roguelikes exists on dedicated systems these days, too, thanks to players realizing how enjoyable the genre is. A pity it’s apparently not big enough that any localization companies felt confident about localizing Shiren 5 Plus for Vita. The number remains higher on PC, since it originated on computers back in the day.

Spike Chunsoft could make some serious inroads in the PC market, provided their claims of giving this a serious shot are legitimate. Even better, their self-publishing efforts will mean they’ll reap the rewards themselves. We’ll see the start of their efforts after Triggerhappy Havoc is unleashed upon all next month.

P.S. All of these PC sales I spoke of can be found on SteamSpy. I’m not full of hot air here, you know.