Japanese Publisher AQ Sets Up, Announces Next-Gen Plans

New Japanese publisher AQ Interactive held a press conference to announce a handful of new games and formally introduce itself to the world, according to a detailed report on consumer website IGN. The company published the Japanese Xbox 360 launch title, Tetris: The Grandmaster Ace with little fanfare. Today, according to these reports, it revealed its plans for the future, and showed off a number of current and next-gen games in development. AQ Interactive was founded on October 1 of this year, as a publisher for three development studios: Artoon (Pinobee, Yoshi Topsy Turvy, the Blinx series), Cavia (Drakengard, Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex) and Feel Plus (the upcoming Lost Odyssey for Xbox 360). Both Artoon and Feel Plus are developing Xbox 360 titles for Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's new studio, Mist Walker, but their relationship beyond that seems purely coincidental. In addition to its previously announced titles for PSP and Xbox 360, AQ also discussed a number of new titles currently in development. On the current-gen front, AQ was vague, revealing only that they will be publishing an original RPG for the PSP, both an adventure and educational title for the Nintendo DS, and a comic-licensed game for the PlayStation 2, to be aimed at the female demographic. As for next-gen formats, two cross-platform games for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were announced: Bullet Witch and Vampire's Rain. A third Xbox 360 title, Cry On, was also announced, and the adventure game is being produced by Sakaguchi himself. Finally, AQ hinted at another PlayStation 3 title, but would not give any details, and revealed two titles in development for the Nintendo Revolution - an action title and a major comics license - making them one of only a handful of third party publishers to so far officially back the console.