Publisher Take-Two will open a Japanese subsidiary to localize and publish its own titles in the country, as opposed to working with other companies to do it.
Siliconera reports that the first title Take-Two will itself release in Japan will be
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, the stand-alone DLC disc that released for Xbox 360 in October 2009. It will launch on other platforms next month, but there is no release date set for the Japanese edition.
Capcom has published Take-Two's
GTA games in Japan in the past, and other publishers, from D3 Publisher and Cyberfront to Spike, have handled properties like
BioShock and
Civilization.
Take-Two is aiming to focus its business efforts, trimming excess costs and
reorganizing some of its operations -- including its distribution business.