NIS Announces U.S. Publishing Deal for Idea Factory Titles

NIS America, the American branch of Japanese developer Nippon Ichi Software, has announced, via its official message board, the company's latest deal to localize and re-publish Japanese software for North America, this time agreeing a territorial license with Japanese developer Idea Factory. NIS will be working to bring Idea Factory's games to the U.S., as part of a renaissance of interest in the more 'hardcore' Japanese RPG market arguably heralded by Nippon Ichi-developed titles Disgaea and La Pucelle Tactics. However, NIS has not yet announced which Idea Factory titles it will choose, and is for the time being actively soliciting fans' suggestions as to which game to translate first. On the assumption that NIS will localize a current-generation game, rather than something from Idea Factory's prolific PSone period, the choices will likely particularly include the Generation of Chaos RPG and SRPG series and the Spectral Force action and RPG series on PlayStation 2; as well as action title Ex-Chaser on Xbox. Whichever game NIS or its fans chooses to localize, it will be the fourth announced game for the company, and its second publishing effort to diversify away from internally-developed Nippon Ichi games, after June's planned release of Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana for PlayStation 2 from Gust.